


Through the mists

by Light_Voltage (MistRunner)



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: AllExoMembers, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Magic, M/M, Mistborn!Au, Romance, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-14
Updated: 2018-02-25
Packaged: 2018-10-05 03:24:51
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 27,043
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10296407
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MistRunner/pseuds/Light_Voltage
Summary: Jongdae is one of the heirs of a very prestigious and well-known noble House in Luthadel, their capital. And with the privilege of being a high-born individual there came the responsibilities. Jongdae finds himself engaged to a mysterious person he has never met and lost in the web of political schemes that seem not only to threaten his own family, but also his friends and the order of their society. BaekChen! [Fantasy, Mistborn!AU]





	1. Foreword

**Author's Note:**

> Before I say anything I need to put a disclaimer.  
> This is a Mistborn!AU and as I am not the author of the series I do not claim any right to the terms used in this story. The world of the Mistborn series belongs to Brandon Sanderson and I am in no way affiliated with him. Any kind of similarities in his books and my story are coincidences (I have not yet read all of them).  
> Thank you.

 

Hi everyone! This is the newest project I am working on.  
**This is main!Baekhyun/Jongdae and side!Chanyeol/Kyungsoo.** Don't like don't read.  
Like I stated in the disclaimer above this is a Mistborn!AU, coming from the Mistborn series by the American Author Brandon Sanderson.  
I will try to explain a little about the world here, otherwise I try to include it in the flow of the story. If there are any questions, please feel free to ask them! :)   
I know all of the following explanations might seem like a lot... but I promise I will take things slow in the story so that you can follow easily! I just wanted to put this out here already in case anyone was curious. :) Everything will be included in the chapters and will be explained in detail there!  
  
I would be really happy if you would give this story a chance. ^^  
  
(Also, I highly recommend these books! They are amazing, believe me.)

Basically, in this world... the people who have special Powers are called "Allomancers" and the special power they can use is referred to as "Allomancy". It utilises metals that the user drinks in tiny doses (usually just shavings with water in vials that they can gulp down) and with those inside their bodies, they are able to "burn" this metal which enables them to use special powers.  
There are two kinds of Allomancers in that world.  
Those who are able to use **one** metal only are called "Misting".  
Those who can use **all** metals are called "Mistborn".

For my story I will not include all of the magic that is used in the original Mistborn series. It is far easier for my plot to work with a shortened system! So please bear with me.  
All in all there are 8 metals that will (probably) be mentioned in this fic. If I decide to add more I will make sure to have them here!  
They appear in pairs and their abilities are also linked. It's always the metal and an alloy fitting to it - reaction and counter action.

      

I will also try to include explanations below the chapter if something new comes up! ^^   
The genes that make someone an Allomancer are more known in the nobility than among common people (for reasons the books would explain, but are of no interest here) and they are not necessarily born with the knowledge of their powers. Sometimes it needs a special event to make them 'snap' and make them realise them.  
  
Thank you!^^  
  
Special thank you for the perpetual loving support to _**L**_ because she makes all of this possible by helping me out, giving me ideas and beta'ing my pile of word vomit~Have fun reading!!  
  
  
  
  
Special thanks to [CASSANDRAYAPJIEYING](https://www.asianfanfics.com/profile/view/314990)  from  for the wonderful Poster and the banner :)  
Thank you!


	2. Prologue

 

 

 

 

 

Luthadel felt even more imposing during the night than during daytime. The lights that shone through the windows of the countless of buildings made one realize just how big the city really was.  
It didn’t matter if it was a noble’s house or one of a common worker. The light was enough to blind you.  
Especially if you were like Chanyeol.  
Not that many people were like him, but those who were would immediately agree with him on this. He preferred the dimly lit alleyways to the wondrous main streets of the city, that followed the canals into all quarters of Luthadel. For him there was simply _too much_ light out here. And though it helped to ease the worry the people about going out in the late hours, to the tall brunet male it was plainly a thorn in his side.  
He could barely see anything with all the light around him.  
Chanyeol wasn’t like the common folk of Scadrial (*). He belonged to another kind, the special one. But it wasn’t like him to brag about it.  
Sometimes, his talents were better left unmentioned.

Guards were patrolling the street parallel to the one he was currently passing and Chanyeol could only hope that they would keep going on and not decide to split up on today’s patrol.  
Fortunately, he would hear them coming – but this area was always filled with city guards, armed with spears or swords that would easily cut through him. He wasn’t sure if his name would safe him. House Buvidas was not exactly well-known, despite it being among the Great Houses of Luthadel for many centuries.  
Not that that meant anything now – change was happening. After the fall of the Final Empire all order had been destroyed and everyone was still trying to get back on their feet and create a new one. It had been roughly two decades now, almost three, since their previous Ruler had been killed, but order was still far from their reach.

Everyone wanted a piece of the Empire. Of the power. The money.

Chanyeol couldn’t care less.  
He didn’t even particularly care about what would happen to the noble House of Buvidas, or what was left of it. They weren’t able to finance such a great mansion like the Hastings.  
It was enormous and illuminated to the point that his eyes began to sting again. Chanyeol lowered the level of _Tin (1)_ that was burning in his stomach and his eyes felt slightly better immediately. He looked up, the main lodgings of House Hastings just a few feet away from him now.  
No one had seen him roam around – at least not yet, but his tin-enhanced ears told him that there was no one around, no guards close-by who would see him climb over the large fence. Fortunately, he was of tall built and it was that much easier to find purchase and get his lanky limbs over the wall, dropping to the ground on the other side.  
Chanyeol stayed down in a crouched position, his head pressed against the stone wall, while listening for any signs of movement. He waited, his ears straining to catch even hushed voices that might talk about having heard him coming – nothing. The garden was not lit by oil lamps and so he reached inside his inner reserves, burning more of his Tin again and enhancing his vision. Everything became clearer as he could navigate through the pleasure-ground of House Hasting with ease to a familiar tree that reached up till the second storey of the building. A window was open, the almost translucent material of Kyungsoo’s curtain hanging partly out of the opening as if inviting him in. And Chanyeol wasn’t one to hesitate.  
He climbed up the tree, using familiar steps as he made his way up and to the branch that reached really close to the room of the heir of House Hastings.  
A short jump and he was hanging on the window frame, pulling himself up and inside.  
No lamps were lit.  
Chanyeol wanted to hug Kyungsoo and kiss him senseless for the younger’s consideration. It was nice to know that the smaller didn’t want him to go blind.

“You’re late,” came a dark and yet tender voice, whispered as to not disturb him. Kyungsoo knew what he was doing. Knew that any loud sound would startle Chanyeol, sending him to the ground, clutching his oversensitive ears.  
It was what Tin did to you. Enhance your five senses, help your mind to think quicker. But if someone dropped a pot next to Chanyeol while he was burning Tin, he was rendered immobile and staggering for a few seconds, the loud noise booming through him.  
The heir of Lord Hasting was a considerate young man. On the shorter side, pitch black hair and big doe eyes that the taller male loved more than any gem he had ever seen in is life.  
Who needed rubies or sapphires when he could look into deep pools of warm brown? He was satisfied with what he had.  
“I’m sorry.” he breathed out and stopped burning Tin. The world around him changed. The endless noises around him dampened and his vision became normal again. He wasn’t hyperaware of the stone in his shoe anymore that had been annoying him since he walked through the public park near Erikeller Street. Everything became dull. Normal.  
To Tineyes(2), the world without their enhanced senses was boring. But they learned to deal with it.  
“I stopped. You can speak normally.” He told Kyungsoo and rustling was heard before the smaller of the two lit up the room with an oil lamp that he had ignited.  
Kyungsoo’s brows were pulled up, looking at the other expectantly. But Chanyeol had no idea what the other was waiting for. Yet, as the younger didn’t speak up about it, he figured it couldn’t be that important. Instead of worrying about it, he walked up to the smaller, easing out the wrinkles on his forehead with his thumb before he leaned down to press a lingering kiss on the same spot.  
“Something has been troubling you again?”  
Kyungsoo shrugged his shoulders, and dark brown orbs locked gazes with him.  
“Yeah. You.”

Chanyeol immediately whined at that. Sometimes the other’s deadpanning could hurt.  
“You don’t mean that!” he argued and the younger simply squeezed his hand to let him know that he might think so sometimes, but he was still with him.  
And that was all that the elder needed.  
“Perhaps not,” he hummed and let the other pull him into an embrace. His attitude might be a little strange to outsiders, but Chanyeol loved him the way he was.  
With his bite.

They all just didn’t know the soft core the other was hiding. Kyungsoo never pulled away from his touches. Let him do almost anything.  
And kissed back with more passion than anyone would ever think.  
Chanyeol had missed their shared kisses, always sneaking into the other’s bed at night when most of House Hastings and House Buvidas were already asleep and wouldn’t notice their heirs meeting in the confinement of Kyungsoo’s large private room.  
But if it wouldn’t be for him being a Misting(3), someone who had one Allumantic(4) ability, then these nightly encounters would probably not be possible.

The taller would make for an excellent spy.  
He heard everything as long as he had Tin reserves in his body. And like any well-equipped Allomancer(5) did he keep a small bottle of water mixed with the tiniest shavings of his corresponding metal in his pockets at all times.  
Running out of your metal when you were in the middle of using it? Let’s just say that it wasn’t a nice experience. So Chanyeol learned early on to never let his Tin reserves run out. Preferably, never let them run out of his body completely, swallowing the next dose as soon as he felt his inner supply going low. And Tin could burn fast.

Except when he wanted to go to sleep. Sleeping with too much metal in your body could make you feel nauseous and the chances of throwing up everything you had eaten the evening before were really high. Trust it, Chanyeol was speaking from experience.

Kyungsoo’s movement got him back from his inner monologue, warm lips pressing against his in a first teasing kiss of the night.  
There would be many more to come.  
And Chanyeol wished yet again that the night would last forever. If anyone of House Hastings were to catch him here… it would end in an open House war – one that his noble House would lose without even batting an eyelash.  
Hastings was the most powerful House of Luthadel at the moment, while Buvidas barely made the cut to belong to the ‘Great Houses’.  
But they were trying.  
Actually, if he and Kyungsoo would be allowed to officially court and support each other… his House would be able to grow and increase its influence greatly. Not that he really cared for that anyway. They had good lives – shouldn’t that be enough? He had never been able to agree with all those people who were just striving for more wealth in their lives.  
But that would probably stay a dream. Buvidas and Hastings? It would never happen.

“Yeol,” his lover got him back, the younger’s arms wrapped around his neck. If he wanted to kiss him like that, Kyungsoo needed to go onto his tiptoes.  
“I know it’s hard to believe, but that doesn’t mean I appreciate you zoning out on me.”, he rolled his eyes and Chanyeol couldn’t help but blink.

Hard to believe?

What was the other playing at? The taller male didn’t understand, but with Kyungsoo so pliant in his hands for once did he not want to destroy the mood between them.  
“Sorry.” He grinned and the smaller male rolled his eyes but forgave him just a moment later when he gifted him a small smile.  
Chanyeol took the other to bed, loving how the younger’s silken covers caressed their skin when he started to burn Tin again.  
The Allomancer always activated his Tin when he made love to Kyungsoo. It made everything better to the point that he felt that it was unfair that he wasn’t allowed to share these experiences with anyone. That it was only him feeling everything on an enhanced level and not his lover as well.  
Kyungsoo’s warmth that he felt under his fingertips just like the softness of his flesh. The smallest of the younger’s moans that sounded like cries of pleasure to him.  
His scent that filled his nostrils, enveloped him in the uniqueness that was Kyungsoo Hastings.

Their limbs were tangled, the cover draped over them by Chanyeol just moments before. Their skin was still flushed from the bliss they had shared, their lungs still fighting for much needed oxygen.  
It felt like heaven. Every damn time he got to do this with his lover. And he wished every day that it would happen more often.  
But there was no way for them.  
It needed to stay their secret.  
“So.” The younger tilted his head, nuzzling into the taller male’s neck. Kyungsoo’s black hair was a nice combination with Chanyeol’s slightly tanned skin.  
“What do you think about it?”  
“About what?” now the elder had to admit that he had absolutely no idea what he has been talking about.  
“Are you pulling my leg? By the Lord Mistborn…” Kyungsoo punched his side and Chanyeol could only let out a small ‘ow’.  
“Hey!” he complained and pouted, “Just tell me. What are you talking about?”  
“Jongdae’s engagement, you oaf.”  
Silence ensued between them. The taller’s thoughts were racing, Tin flaring in his core as he tried to get a hold of this situation. He heard his own breathing in his ears, Kyungsoo’s a calm rhythm in comparison to his own.  
What?  
What had he missed? He went through countless conversations in his mind, but he didn’t find any kind of clue about it.  
“Jongdae’s what?”  
He stopped burning so much Tin, slowly coming back to his normal state. He tended to do that when he panicked. Flare his metal – and that cost him his reserves easily.  
Kyungsoo hummed, obviously unfazed by this whole situation. Well, the black haired male was the one to always keep calm, to keep on top of things while everyone else simply panicked.  
Like Chanyeol.  
“Engagement. I think with House Izenry? Their rivalling House over the canal routes…”  
The elder just shook his head.  
“I didn’t hear anything about that yet. Not even from Dae himself. Does he even know?”  
In their kind of society that didn’t necessarily need to be the case.  
“I think so” the smaller whispered, placing a kiss on the elder’s collarbone.  
“It’s pretty _hush hush_ though. Only heard it today. So it might be fresh news.”  
“It has to be. He would have told us.” Chanyeol was sure of that.

They were close friends with Jongdae from House Tekiel…  
And they had never heard anything about a possible engagement with House Izenry. Did Jongdae even know the other person?  
The tall Tineye immediately worried for his friend and sighed.  
“Can we go see him tomorrow?” he asked, stroking through Kyungsoo’s silky locks. They couldn’t go there together of course – couldn’t officially be seen with each other, except maybe on balls. But the smaller’s family expected their son to mingle with the right people. And not the nobles at the end of the food chain. Like him.  
Kyungsoo nodded against his body.  
“I’ll be there. I promise.”

Chanyeol could only hope that Jongdae was okay.

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (*) Scadrial – the name of the world/continent  
> (1) Tin – one of the eight metals, enhances your senses  
> (2) Tineye – colloquial term for Mistings able to use Tin only  
> (3) Misting – an Allomancer able to use one metal only  
> (4) Allomancy – using metal reserves in your body to gain special abilities.  
> (5) Allomancer – someone born with the ability to use Alomancy. More likely to appear among the nobles than the common people.
> 
> A/N:  
> Yes, the prologue starts with Chanyeol and Kyungsoo and not with our actual protagonists ^^ And yes, this is all planned of course.  
> Thank you to everyone who is giving this a chance. It’s gonna be a long and maybe confusing ride but I hope I will be able to explain everything as we go. If there is something unclear, please don’t hesitate to hit me up and ask away! ( As long as it won’t spoiler the plot, I will answer :P )
> 
> So we learned that Chanyeol and Kyungsoo are secretly seeing each other and that Chanyeol is a Tineye :P  
> And! Jongdae is engaged??  
> All the mysteries~~
> 
> Chapter 1 will be in Jongdae’s POV, so please anticipate and once again thank you for reading : ) Jongdae and Chanyeol are like the red threats in my story, but most of the chapter’s will be in Jongdae’s POV ^^ Just to clarify this.  
> xxx Voltage


	3. Chapter 1

 

Jongdae let out a loud sigh.  
It bounced off the walls of his big room and was met with no response as the young noble was left alone after the tantrum he had thrown downstairs.  
It probably hadn’t been the best thing to do – especially with how tense his father had been over the last couple of weeks, but it had just burst out of him. He still couldn’t believe it.  
The young heir of House Tekiel could not wrap his head around what had happened yesterday, not even after a night of sleep and a full day of pondering.  
Jongdae had wondered if he had misunderstood or if his parents had tried to pull his leg. Yet, he should have known that his father was a far too serious person for this kind of thing.  
He should have known.  
But that didn’t make accepting it any easier.  
He didn’t even know whom he was engaged to. And that was probably the thing that annoyed him the most about this whole political scheme.  
It wasn’t the fact that he had indeed been engaged to someone of another House, as Jongdae had been expecting that for quite a while now, if he was honest with himself. With Joonmyeon being busy as an ambassador, travelling through all the dominions that formed their large country – and Jongin being their fledgling, as well as their mother’s favourite.  
_/Better me than him/_

Jongin was a really soft person. His little brother loved to read and get lost in the fantasies his own head spun for him.  
He didn’t go out all that much.  
Usually it had to be him, Joonmyeon or Sehun to coax him out.  
But with their eldest brother travelling most of the time… there now were only two people who had the power of getting the youngest Tekiel out of his shell.  
_/Well, he might be shy but at least he has already Snapped (1)… not like me…/_  
Another sigh as he closed his eyes in defeat.

Jongdae wasn’t really the best catch of their family. Joonmyeon had the looks, the knowledge and the experience. Jongin definitely had the looks and moreover had his Allomantic powers already been awakened thanks to him _Snapping_ at a young age.  
_/And thanks to Sehun…/_  
Jongin was a Smoker (2). He could burn Copper, much like Chanyeol could burn Tin to enhance his senses, only that Jongin could create a so called ‘Coppercloud’ to hide any Allomantic pulses inside it. Meaning that if there was a Seeker(3) – a person who could use Bronze to find Allomancers nearby – he would not be able to find or feel them. That made him into a very sought after Misting.  
And Jongdae?  
Jongdae still hadn’t Snapped. At the age of twenty-three, countless attempts of his teachers and professors behind him… he still had no idea what his fate would be.  
Some Seekers swore they felt Allomantic pulses coming from him from time to time, but they were always too unstable and too short-lived to analyse.  
Sometimes – meaning quite often for Jongdae – the young Tekiel thought that he would never Snap. That all of his parents’ scholars were actually wrong.

So, to sum this up, Jongdae didn’t know why they chose him and not Joonmyeon, but was glad at the same time that it wasn’t Jongin.  
And just like that he found himself in this huge predicament, engaged to one of the heirs of their rivalling House with no one to talk to and no one to complain to.  
With no intel at all about this situation. Great.  
Everything was just _great_.  
And it became even greater when someone knocked on his door. A shiver ran down his spine as he hoped to the Lord Mistborn that it wasn’t his mother. Or his father.  
He really didn’t want to deal with them right now. He wanted to wail in agony and self-pity for a while longer.  
To his sheer luck though, it was neither of them when he opened the large wooden doors that revealed a shaggy black tuft of hair.  
Kyungsoo.  
“Thank Harmony!” Jongdae exclaimed with a large, bright grin and pulled the heir of House Hastings inside of his room.  
Kyungsoo visited him quite often as it was even encouraged from their parents to keep a close relationship. After all was House Tekiel the third most influential noble house here in Luthadel, only succumbing to Kyungsoo’s parents’ house Hastings and Sehun’s family House Elariel. The ties between the three of them were regarded with great content on their parent’s side.  
“I’m so glad to see someone that is not crazy!” Jongdae whined as he had closed the door behind them, the iron lock clicking as he turned the key inside the hole, locking his room.  
The glass doors to his balcony were still open though, the silky and almost transparent curtains dancing slightly when a fresh breeze hit them.  
It was a pleasant late spring night and the wind a welcome refreshment in the confines of his room. It had felt so stuffed.  
Jongdae had been close to suffocating, but now, with Kyungsoo here with him and more visitors on the way, he felt oddly at peace.  
That was what friends were for, right?

“Yeah. Sorry it turned out this late…”  
Jongdae immediately shook his head and offered his friend some chilled juice that the younger noble accepted with a small smile.  
Kyungsoo never showed too many emotions, but when he did you could be sure that they were genuine.  
The brunet heir of House Tekiel really cherished their friendship that was built on loyalty and honesty. Once their generation was the one leading the Great Houses… Jongdae hoped that all the stupid rivalry would come to an end.  
“It’s fine. I am glad you came… I … I really needed someone to talk to…” Jongdae trailed of, the dread settling over him again. This depressing mood was really getting on his nerves. He usually wasn’t one to be down like this, but… these circumstances were _special_.  
“I can imagine” Kyungsoo replied, shrugging his shoulders  
“Nothing easy to stomach, even though we are kinda prepared for it for all of our life already…” That was the truth.  
As the offspring of noble Houses… they were the most popular and wanted Bachelors in all the ten Dominances. They all knew what would be coming their way.  
Jongdae just didn’t know it would be so _soon_.  
“Yeah… and.. Izenry? They aren’t even one of the Great Houses… I know next to nothing about them, except that they are trying to get more business on the canals. Which my family obviously doesn’t like…” he shrugged his shoulders.  
He didn’t even know the names of the leading family of House Izenry. Well, despite that their family name was obviously Izenry.  
But more than that? He didn’t even know how many heirs they had. Heck, he didn’t even know if the person he was engaged to was a guy or a girl.  
He knew next to nothing and that made him whine in annoyance.

“Hey… I know” Kyungsoo tried to soothe him with a warm palm on his lower back  
“It probably isn’t so bad. It will stop your families from quarrelling. Just look at the business side.” The younger tried to reason and Jongdae made a face  
“If only I were Joonmyeon…”  
Then maybe ‘seeing it the business way’ wouldn’t be too hard for him. But sadly, he was not. He was Jongdae, the brother born in the middle.  
“Jongdae don’t-“ but Kyungsoo nearly gasped when a large shadow suddenly flew inside the room, a dark cloak hiding the figure of a person.  
The hood of the garment hid the newcomer’s face as the person stood, long legs straightening out from the crouched position he had landed in.  
Jongdae wasn’t even fazed by this however as he had been the one to secure a large piece of Steel below his balcony in the garden after all.  
“Sorry for the delay” came a deep and familiar voice as the figure finally pulled the hood off his head, revealing strawberry blonde locks underneath.  
“Sehun… you scared-“  
“Sorry folks!” Kyungsoo was interrupted yet again as another voice all but boomed through the room and all three of them turned to the balcony railings where another person with long, gangly limbs was currently climbing up.  
Chanyeol was a Tineye and though he was able to find his way through Luthadel in the dark without the help of any torch or guide he wasn’t able to pull on Steel like Sehun could.  
The young heir of House Elariel could burn Steel inside of him, making any sources of metal visible to him on which he could push. Depending on the weight of the source of metal and his own weight he could transport himself up in the air or towards a certain direction in a fast speed. Sehun was a Coinshot(4).  
Kind of unfair that so many people around him had Allomantic talents, right?  
Except Kyungsoo. He didn’t have any Allomantic powers sleeping within him. At least until now. You could never be one hundred percent sure about it – some people Snapped very late and barely had any time with their new found powers before their life came to an end again.  
Jongdae desperately hoped he didn’t belong to that group. He either wanted to experience the full range of being a Misting – he didn’t even dare to dream of the possibility of being a full-fledged _Mistborn_ (5), people born with the ability to burn all known Allomantic metals and making use of them – or never get a taste at all.

It was better this way, at least in his opinion.

“Chanyeol!” he smiled slightly and hurried over with Sehun to pull him up and over the railing onto his balcony when they realised that the Tineye wasn’t going to make it on his own.  
Kyungsoo remained inside Jongdae’s warm room, his arms crossed over his chest and eyebrows raised as he watched the tallest member of their group of friends apologise and poking fun at Sehun for being _totally_ unfair with his Steel-Pushing stuff.  
“You know you two could have taken the door. Like normal people do.” The black haired heir of House Hasting’s deadpanned and immediately rejected any kind of riposte with a curt “Don’t you dare bring up the Misting argument. It does _not_ count.” At which Chanyeol visibly deflated and sighed, a small smile creeping on his lips when he realised that there was no true bite in his secret lover’s words.

Jongdae was one of the persons who knew about their secret. And he would take it to his very own grave.

“But Soo~” the tall male whined, a grin plastered all over his face.  
“We didn’t want to catch anyone’s attention. And Sehun figured it would be the fastest way in. Well… for him at least”  
To which the Coinshot just smirked, shrugging his shoulders as a sign of nonchalance. Kyungsoo’s response was an elongated sigh while they all moved inside now with Jongdae closing the balcony doors behind them, as well as the curtains to give them more privacy.  
His friends were great.  
And noisy – even Kyungsoo could be quite excited if he talked about something he liked – which was exactly what he needed now.  
Distraction. Different opinions on the matter and just his friends to keep him company. Everything was a mess. But with these three around him, he felt more at ease, his thoughts falling into place.  
“Sorry, I didn’t think of taking some wine up to my rooms, so water or juice has to do” the brunet said, realising too late that while he had expected his guests to arrive, he forgot everything else around it.  
And moreover… he really wanted to be left alone. Didn’t want to see anyone from his family – except his brothers – and the House staff who might look at him with pity in their eyes.

_/Think of Jongin/_ he reminded himself. _/You’re doing this for him. And for House Tekiel./_

“So,” Chanyeol had plopped down on Jongdae’s bed, with Sehun dropping down to the floor, sitting crossed legged. Kyungsoo was the only one who sat on one of the many chairs in his room, acting like the noble he actually was. The two tallest of their group had always been more on the rebellious side. Not caring about which spoon went with the soup and which with the desert and Jongdae was stuck in the middle, trying to please while trying to be his own self.  
And right now, he was far too anxious as to actually sit down for a small chat among friends. They knew this at least.  
“Engaged, huh? I heard the news from Kyungsoo just yesterday…”  
Jongdae hummed and shrugged his shoulders, his hand coming up to ruffle his dark brown locks. Well, it was no surprise that the tall silver haired male was quite shocked about these news. Jongdae had been the same.  
“Yeah, haha.” There was no mirth in his voice as he laughed dryly  
“Imagine the fun thing that Kyungsoo actually knew about it before me. Haha. Funny stuff, right? My parents told House Hastings before they told their own son.”  
Yeah, that was the kind of family they were. Their ties meant nothing in the face of wealth and reputation. The young heir of House Tekiel had to learn that early on.  
You were nothing but a pawn in your parent’s games.

And he desperately hoped that he would never end up like them. Would treat his future family better than this. Or maybe not… if he was to marry someone from House Izenry…

“Shit, man.” Sehun grumbled and leaned against the bed frame, Chanyeol looking even less amused.  
“Yeah, it’s kind of shitty.”  
Jongdae sighed, knowing that whining won’t solve anything now.  
“There is no way out, is there?” the Tineye whispered, their gazes locking for a second before the brunet closed his eyes, shaking his head.  
“Except running away. But if I do that they’ll just make Jongin do it instead of me.”  
And that thought made them all flinch. Jongin was a little older than Sehun, but only by a few months. They used to be really close and no one has ever found out what had made them stop being best of friends. Now, Sehun was mostly glued to the heirs of House Buvidas and Hastings. Separately of course.  
“So it’s not an option.” Kyungsoo piped up and they all nodded their heads again.  
“Yeah. It’s better me than him. I mean… he is still my younger brother. If I do as our parents wish, maybe they let him choose his future partner freely.”  
At least was he hoping for that.  
“So you’re going to play the good son?” Sehun hummed, looking kind of disapproving of this whole shenanigan.  
“I don’t have another choice, Hun.” Jongdae repeated. He didn’t want to accept it either, but… he came to terms with this faster than he would like to admit.  
“Do you even know the person?” the youngest pressed and the brunet could only shake his head.  
“You don’t? Which one of their children it is?”

Jongdae bit his lower lip, hating just how uninformed he was. How little information his parents had given him on the matter. And it wasn’t something trivial. It was about his fucking marriage. But apparently all these things weren’t as important as new contracts and more income.

“I don’t know. How many Izenry kids are there?” he asked, turning to Kyungsoo as he was the one to usually provide them with data.  
“Three kids. Two sons and a daughter. I think they are twins. One guy and the girl, I mean.” he told them, head tilted and eyebrows scrunched together as he tried to remember more about House Izenry.  
“Sorry. That’s all that comes into my mind now. But I think my family invited them for the ball next weekend at our House.”  
“Ah. Red Sun festival? It’s your House’s turn this year?” Jongdae blinked, completely lost at all the different balls and other events Kyungsoo seemed to remember effortlessly.  
“Yeah. I’m sure they are invited. So maybe you can check them out there?”

In secret, of course.  
Jongdae tilted his head, overthinking this idea. The engagement was not made public yet. That Kyungsoo’s House knew was already too much for his opinion, yet that meant that they could not just meet up and talk casually. It would cause people to talk.  
Even if Jongdae didn’t even know to whom of the siblings he was engaged to. To the higher up in the noble Houses it didn’t matter.  
They wanted gossip.  
“Sounds like a good idea. If they turn out to be terrible I can still take Jongin and make a run for it, right? Though I’d feel bad for Joonmyeon…”  
But his older brother would be alright. He knew that.  
At least his last comment made his two tall friends snicker in mischief.  
“Maybe that isn’t such a bad idea. We’ll be there too,“ Chanyeol glanced over at Kyungsoo, who nodded, meaning that both House Buvidas and Elariel were on the guest list, “and see if there is anything we can pick up about them. Maybe there is a way to get out of this…”

They were all full of hope, bumping their fists together as their plan was settled, with the shortest of them just _slightly_ reluctant in their ‘one for all and all for one’ exclamation.

Jongdae didn’t think that there was a way out of this mess, but he liked to pretend. And maybe, maybe these Izenry kids weren’t so bad. Izenry was a small noble House, meaning that the siblings didn’t necessarily grew up with a silver spoon up their-, he cleared his throat.  
Maybe they weren’t _so_ bad.  
And well, there was still plan ‘take Jongin and make a run for it’ and plan ‘make Kyungsoo take all of their family’s money and make a run for it with Jongin, Chanyeol, Sehun and Kyungsoo, living lives of mercenaries, or street performers. Or something that doesn’t involve starving to death’.  
Not so bad, right?

The answer to it all lay ahead on the last day of spring. Red Sun Day.

Jongdae didn’t know if he should anticipate, or fear it.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (1) Snapping – the moment a person gains/realises their Allomantic talents, usually caused by a dramatic event or a near-death experience  
> (2) Smoker – colloquial term for Mistings able to use Copper only  
> (3) Seeker – colloquial term for Mistings able to use Bronze only  
> (4) Coinshot - colloquial term for Mistings able to use Steel only  
> (5) Mistborn – an Allomancer able to burn and use all metals
> 
> A/N:   
> Thank you for reading! Thank you to those few who left a comment on the prologue! Now it’s getting started and we entered Jongdae’s point of view, who is the main character of this fic. Some chapters will still be in Chanyeol’s point of view however.  
> I don’t want to spoil too much yet :P
> 
> We learned so much about them in this chapter!! ^^ And that poor Jongdae has to marry someone whom he hasn’t ever met   
> It must really suck being nothing more than a pawn to your parents…  
> (The argument that it’s all my fault does not count!!)
> 
> Thank you so much for reading and supporting this ^^ This fic means a lot to me!!
> 
> If you have questions, please feel free to ask me!  
> Also if you want to read the books I can only recommend them! : )
> 
> Thanks to L (the only sane one).
> 
> xxx Voltage


	4. Chapter 2

 

  
  


 

It was still a little over a week till the upcoming Red Sun festival at House Hasting’s large mansion. One definitely couldn’t call their home a house – it was simply too large and grand for that. All of the Great Houses had excellent and pretentious residences, yet they all knew that House Hasting’s home was only surpassed by the home of the High Lord Minseok.  
Jongdae had often gotten lost in Kyungsoo’s home and had continued to wonder how the smaller boy was able to find his way through the endless hallways and rooms.  
House Tekiel was important and rich, yet they didn’t live in such an enormous residence. None of them did. Though Sehun’s own home probably got kind of close, the brunet figured. Elariel came straight after House Hasting after all, being the second most important of the Great Houses. They dealt in fabrics – the expensive kind of course. Silk, rare types of wool and cotton… these kind of things.  
And they knew how to handle their money – just as Kyungsoo’s family.

Jongdae usually tried to avoid such social gatherings like the upcoming festivity. The people there liked to gossip, liked to feed on every piece of dirt they found. One could think that they have learned from their mistakes, but no, they clearly have not. They still acted like hyenas, laughing at one’s mistakes and backstabbing you as soon as they got a chance to. Besides… most of the small talk he had to go through with the older generation consisted of talk about his still dormant Allomantic powers and just how unfortunate it was that he still hadn’t Snapped. That his powers hadn’t awakened after all these years. It made Jongdae feel worthless and even more like a failure. A disappointment. So he could say that yes, he didn’t enjoy these events at all. And yet, he knew that there was no way around this one. It was important and he knew that. There were four season based festivities here in Luthadel that you couldn’t miss without a proper excuse after you have been introduced to the court. The Red Sun festival that would take place on the upcoming weekend was the ‘Ball of Spring’ and a way to welcome the summer with open arms. Next was the Golden Sun festival at the end of summer, the so called Blue Sun festival followed in autumn, and last but not least the Green Sun festival at the end of winter, a week after New Year. Everyone of name had to attend. And, unfortunately, Jongdae’s family was of great importance in the city.  
So yeah.

Jongdae had to attend.

But this year, it didn’t feel as bad. He had a mission to accomplish this time. He wanted to have a closer look at the heirs of House Izenry, who have been House Tekiel’s rivals ever since they came to Luthadel. They both specialised in Canal trading as well as other forms of transport should the need arise.  
Tekiel’s carriages and horses were well known and had a very good reputation, but Izenry started very early to take up even the most complicated jobs and that made them popular with the people.  
At least was that his father’s story and the reason why they know considered an alliance with them.  
Meaning that Jongdae was engaged to the heir of House Izenry. The only problem was that he didn’t know who said person was. He didn’t have a name as it seemed like the family of his future spouse hadn’t decided yet whom to marry off.  
Probably the most unimportant one. The youngest maybe, if he or she wasn’t a Misting. Jongdae himself still counted as a non-Allomancer, so his value wasn’t that high either. They’d be a perfect match. Useless and Disappointment. They’d make quite the pair. He laughed bitterly and was glad for Kyungsoo’s presence next to him.  
  
The younger had invited him for a quiet afternoon at his place, exactly what he had needed after everything that had come crushing down on him. Learning that you were getting engaged to someone you didn’t know? Whose name you hadn’t even heard before?  
Well, it was a lot to take in, that much was for certain. The thing was that he was quite sure that his parents didn’t know the Izenry heirs either. This was a business deal and both of them were being sold like goods on a market. Oh, the irony.  
No wonder that Jongdae’s curiosity about them was piqued, right? He wanted to know… he wanted to learn about his potential spouses.  
The brunet had long come to terms with the fact that except from running away and leaving this all behind there was no way out of this deal. He could either accept it, and try to live with it, or see if he could make a living on his own, which he seriously doubted.  
For now, he only wanted to learn more about the person he was going to marry. It would be one of the kids. That much was clear. What was not clear was just how many potential candidates there were… none of his friends had any clue if someone of the Izenry heirs was already married or promised to someone - not even Kyungsoo, but his friend had promised him to look into the matter. Wouldn’t be that hard to find out. It had just never been of importance to any of them as House Izenry was actually to small to invest time in. And if all three of their children were still… ‘free’ then Jongdae had three possible partners for life.  
Splendid.

“Are you doing okay?” came Kyungsoo’s deep and soothing voice. Jongdae could only shrug his shoulders at that. He didn’t know the correct answer to this question.  
“Theoretically yes?” Jongdae hummed and turned to the black haired noble  
“Until the moment where you told me that the upcoming ball is a mask ball!” the brunet whined, utterly unsatisfied with this revelation. It was already enough that he needed to force himself into his formal attire. All young and fashionable guys wore robes cut like the ones the last Emperor of the so called Final Empire had worn. It was tight and pretty much on the uncomfortable side, tailored to fit him perfectly and make his straight posture stand out. Usually in bright and light colours. Anything except white. That was reserved for their head of state only, the High Lord Minseok who ruled their Dominance together with the senate and the court.  
  
However, his whining only caused the smaller to roll his eyes at his best friend.  
“You act like it’s a catastrophe. What’s so bad about a mask ball?”  
Jongdae pouted, crossing his arms over his chest. How about everything? Kyungsoo should have mentioned that sooner then he would have re-thought his plan. If everyone was going to wear masks… then he didn’t even need to seek out the heirs of Izenry. How could he be sure then that it was really them? Or how they looked like…  
Jongdae wasn’t superficial, but he wanted… to see them too. Not just look at the face of a mask and keep on wondering.  
“If they are all wearing masks then I don’t even need to look for the Izenrys. Won’t be able to see much then anyway. Too much trouble…” he trailed off and the smaller male next to him already huffed.  
“Don’t be ridiculous, Jongdae.” The black haired male looked at him with his eyebrows drawn up  
“You’re not supposed to wear a full mask or anything. Just a small one. Or maybe one that only hides half of your face. Not too much. You know it’s just a name thing… The upper ones still work like that. They like fancy names. Fancy masks. But they also like knowing who they are going to backstab.” the younger explained and kept his dark eyes on the brunet the whole time, seizing him up and… looking into his soul the way Jongdae knew he would confess everything that was going on in his head… It didn’t even need that much more coaxing of the smaller.  
  
“Dae… it’s just me. You know you can tell me the truth. You don’t have to act all tough and witty like you do with Chanyeol and Sehun.”  
The elder knew this. He really did. Kyungsoo was his safe haven, his calm anchor. He was so grateful for the younger male… that words couldn’t even properly express it.  
“I know”  
He leaned over, his cup of tea forgotten on the table in front of him and placed his head on his friend’s shoulder.  
“I know. I just… I don’t know how to handle this yet. My whole life is going to change and I’ll be with someone I have never met. Forever. It’s just… It seems so unreal, you know?”  
Kyungsoo nodded, squeezing his thigh in reassurance.  
“I know.” He whispered back, his voice sounding far less reassuring than he had intended probably  
“Maybe it won’t be for forever though. You never know what might happen.” The smaller continued and looked into the direction of the balcony.  
The night was beautiful. A million stars lit up the sky, with no mist swirling through the darkness. A good night for guards and lawmen. A terrible one for Mistings and Mistborn.

Mistborn…  
Jongdae had never met any. And they had become much more rare since the Era of the Last Emperor that many people already considered them extinct, a mere legend for the history books.

Jongdae begged to differ though. He just knew… that there were still people like that out there. Owning the mists.  
Sometimes…  
Yes, sometimes he wished he could be one of them.  
  
 The brunet could only shrug his shoulders now.  
“I guess you’re right. Nothing is forever. Only the mists, I reckon.”  
“We don’t know that. I think there was a time before the mists came, before Allomancers were born. But because of our terrible history all accounts on that time have been lost. People forget easily if there is no constant reminder.” Kyungsoo said, his voice steadier now  
“That’s just how people are.”  
Jongdae nudged his friend, jabbing him in the ribs while letting out a small whine.  
“Soo~”, he wailed  
“You’re not really giving me any positive thoughts here! You’re supposed to support me, not make me feel more miserable and alone in the world!”  
That made his friend stop with his musings, looking up. His round doe eyes blinked several times.  
“Sorry.” He immediately apologised and Jongdae could only sigh  
“How do you and Chanyeol even fit together…” he trailed of, not realising that he had said that out aloud. Yet, there was no answer from his younger friend - he had chosen to stay mum apparently.  
Jongdae decided to drop the topic then. There was no use in this anyway.  
Especially once Kyungsoo fell into silence, then he knew that he had reached a dead end with the other.

“So. Mask ball. I still don’t know what to wear to that…”  
He really didn’t. It wasn’t like he had some fancy collection from which he could choose. Jongdae was never really interested in these things.  
If not for his parents, he probably wouldn’t even own fine garments for any kind of ball. But luckily they had taken care of that. Wonderful to have such a privileged life, right?  
You get all the gemstones in the world, but you pay it with your freedom.

“Jongdae…” Kyungsoo was the one sighing now, “How about we make this easy?” he tilted his head, his hand tousling his slightly too long raven locks. It fit him though. His parents usually wanted him to keep them short, but once in a while they were lenient and the heir of House Hasting let it grow out till it fell cutely over his ears.  
But usually they caught on really fast then and made him sit through the process of hair cutting.  
  
“Let’s just go with House colours. I’ll go with gold, and you can go with forest green. Would that make you fell better?”  
The smaller was really a good friend.  
Jongdae would never complain about him. Just sometimes – but not that often, he promised.  
“Okay.” he whispered out and shrugged his shoulders again, leaning his head against Kyungsoo’s shoulder.  
“But I don’t have any mask. Not even in Tekiel’s house colour~” he added then, after realising that even though they had decided on the kind of masks they wanted to wear it would not solve his problem. Dark, forest green… the colour of his own House.  
Tekiel.  
Did Izenry have a House colour as well?  
All the Great noble Houses did. And Izenry was a developing one. It felt natural to have a colour to represent your House in Jongdae’s opinion. Especially if you were a family specialising in trading. Your reputation with the common people was more than important then.  
And having a colour that would make them remember you? Associate it with you and your business?  
There was nothing better. It was some kind of advertisement too and a good way of recognition. In business and among nobles.  
No House colour was the same.  
This was a very important aspect that needed to be taken into account when a growing and prestigious family announced their House Colour and their emblem if they did not have one yet.

And… Jongdae knew neither of House Izenry.  
“Do you know the House colour of Izenry? Maybe I can discern them with it… if they had the same idea as us, that is.”  
His best friend could only shake his head at that though.  
Damn. Of course. So much about House Izenry was a mystery… and the only thing that his parents cared about was the fact that they were taking away costumers.  
Nothing else seemed to matter to them. They were real entrepreneurs apparently.  
“Can’t help you there. But maybe I can find it out until then” the younger offered  
“Anyway. Don’t worry about the mask. I will have it ready for you in a few days time” Kyungsoo continued, a small sheepish smile on his lips now which caused Jongdae to straighten his back, his eyes widening as they faced the smaller male’s in shock.  
“What? Soo, no you don’t have to!”  
He shook his head feverishly, trying to reject his best friend’s generosity. However, it seemed that this would be a lost cause for him.  
“Let me.” The younger spoke up, his voice deeper than usually, speaking of his conviction. Jongdae had been afraid of that already.  
His mind was made up.  
Lost cause – like he had said.  
“It will be my gift to you.” The smile on the raven haired male’s face bloomed and the brunet really didn’t have the heart to tell the other off now.  
Kyungsoo seemed content – and Jongdae was a pleaser. He wanted to make others happy and he would use everything in his might to make the people he loved smile.  
And… well.  
He really didn’t have any kind of mask that would qualify, nor did he have a particularly good sense of fashion and design. So maybe this was indeed for the best.  
“Fine.” He gave in, pouting.  
Kyungsoo looked satisfied and that was enough for now.

“If you know what’s good for you, you let me do this.” Kyungsoo joked then and Jongdae whined again before he pulled his friend into a hug. The other could be damn stubborn… and very patient. Which was probably one of the main reasons he managed to be together with Chanyeol. And that for a long time already.  
His friend’s embrace felt warm, the smaller male’s arms around him making him feel better already. He could do this, right?  
He had to pull through.  
There was no date set yet for the eventual marriage… and until then he was still kind of free. Just engaged… and in that period of time a lot could happen.  
Maybe Izenry would go bankrupt and thus the alliance wouldn’t be necessary anymore. Business was like that. Unpredictable. House Tekiel itself knew that better than anyone - they had had their ups and downs, but they had always returned victorious until now.

His eyes begin to wander around while he was still unwilling to let go of their shared embrace. It feels good to have someone by your side whom you trusted completely.  
Especially when your own family is selling you off so willingly.  
Kyungsoo’s room looked bare in comparison to others’. Especially, if you were the heir of one of the richest Houses in all of Luthadel. But to him, to Jongdae, his best friend, it screamed Chanyeol all over.  
No one else would probably notice this.  
They were really subtle with their relationship. Their parents weren’t allowed to catch on. Under no circumstances.  
Sehun, Jongin and him had vowed to take this secret to their graves if they must.  
And they would stick to it.  
All kind of small trinkets lying around in the raven haired’s room were gifts from the tall Tineye. The brunet caught sight of a far too large dress shirt that was most certainly Chanyeol’s as well, now in Kyungsoo’s possession. A warm vest in in an ash-grey colour with a small, bright red emblem on the pocket. A fiery but light red… House Buvidas’ colour. But the garment was so unspectacular that no one would pay it any mind. It was just a vest. Finely made, but not special enough to gain attention.  
They were careful.  
Jongdae hoped by Harmony that they would make it.  
And… a small part of him hoped that he might also find someone like that. Despite him being engaged now… he could still continue hoping, right?

“Hey Soo?” he caught his best friend’s attention.  
It had just came to his mind, the question lingering on his tongue and now he couldn’t get rid of the thought anymore. His curiosity was getting the better of him.  
“Mhm?” he heard the younger hum, a sign that he was listening, but not in the mood for too many words. Which was fine.  
“Did… you ever dance with Chanyeol? At a ball?”

It was kind of romantic, right? Something out of fairy tale books that the common people may read. A lowly born person would attend a ball filled with the most important people of their country and by chance… meet their other half.  
They would share a dance, hiding in the crowd of people and then… the night would carry them away.

Okay.  
Stop right there.

Jongdae let out a loud whine as his thoughts were becoming weirder and weirder. This was seriously getting to his head apparently. He sounded absolutely overdramatic and melancholic by now and he needed to stop right there.  
Before he… mutated into some really depressed and dark… pile of negativity. And that was definitely not like Jongdae. At all.

“Are you okay?” Kyungsoo inquired and the brunet could only nod.  
“Sorry. I realised that my thoughts are getting more and more depressed… and that is really annoying meee~” he pouted and rubbed his temples.  
“So? You and Chanyeol?”  
Kyungsoo started to smile shyly when the name of his secret lover was mentioned.  
“Theoretically, yes. We have danced together at multiple occasions.”, he whispered, apparently afraid that someone might overhear.  
“Just… not in front of everyone. Not down there where everyone expects one to dance. We usually choose hallways. Or corridors. Sometimes an abandoned balcony.”, he offered to his best friend. Kyungsoo looked happy with what he had.  
And Jongdae would try to do the same thing.  
“You… don’t need to worry about me. Really. You should focus on your own path right now. You know that the guys and me are there to support you, right?”  
Slowly, they loosened their embrace now.  
The brunet hadn’t even realised that he had been holding on all this while. Maybe he needed more support than he wanted to admit.  
But he had great friends.  
A wonderful younger brother… and an older one who still had no idea about what was going on in the capital. In his home.  
That Jongdae was being sold off like that.  
Though ‘sold’ sounded a little over the top. They were the more prestigious house… so the Izenry heir was probably the one being ‘sold’.  
How was he feeling? Or she?

“I know. It’s gonna be alright. It can’t be that bad, right?” he started to chuckle and looked at his best friend.  
“After all, I know how much your punches hurt. So this person should better be careful if they don’t wanna die of your wrath!” Jongdae started to snicker and Kyungsoo all but growled  
“I’m not some evil spirit from one of your fairy tale books, Tekiel Jongdae…” he grumbled, his arms crossing over his chest as he looked clearly offended.  
“Don’t act so innocent~” the brunet snickered, a big fat smirk growing on his face  
“Remember that time you caught Chanyeol spying on you and you screamed and then… well… he was unconscious for a while.”

That made his best friend shut up. His cheeks tinted in a dark red as he turned away.  
“That was one time, Jongdae. __One time__!”  
“But we all still remember it!” he argued back and chuckled.  
He felt better already.  
Joking around like this… he felt free. He felt lighter.

It was true. He still had his friends. And they wouldn’t abandon him any time soon.

Perhaps his fiancé wasn’t so bad even. Who knew?  
He hummed, thinking about House Izenry that had suddenly appeared in Luthadel. Coming from the Southern Islands all the way to the Central Dominance … it was a long way to go. And all that for a fragile business.  
“What’s bothering you?”  
Jongdae shrugged his shoulders. He wasn’t the business orientated Tekiel sibling. That was definitely Joonmyeon… But still…

It made him think.  
“Doesn’t it strike you as odd?”  
“What exactly? You? Then yes, you are sure odd sometimes, Jongdae…”  
“Hey!”, Jongdae complained, pouting  
“This isn’t about me! I meant House Izenry! They… they just popped up out of nowhere, stealing costumers from our family business… And then my parents suddenly are that impressed that they consider joining forces? It’s just… odd.”  
Kyungsoo hummed, thinking about what the brunet had said before he answered with a shrug. These were all speculations.  
No one of them knew facts.

And Jongdae… he just didn’t want to be a pawn in some scheme. But…  
“Perhaps… I am just overthinking things again” he groaned, dropping back on the soft chair.  
“Sorry Soo. That you need to listen to all of my ramblings…”  
But his best friend only squeezes his hand, offering him some sweet, dried fruits .  
“It’s fine. Don’t worry. I hope you are right though. With overthinking things…”  
Jongdae nodded.  
“I hope so too.”

 

And maybe… yeah maybe it wouldn’t be that bad. He could keep on hoping after all. And he would do so. The upcoming mask ball would help shed light on the matter.

And until then…  
Jongdae kept looking straight ahead, his head help high.

 

 ******A/N:  
No notes this time~~ I think we already covered most of the basics, but feel free to ask me stuff should you stumble over something!  
Thank you for reading Chapter 2!  
This chapter puts an emphasis on the friendship between Jongdae and Kyungsoo. Also some cute Chansoo things ;)  
I want this story to feel natural and so, of course, there will be lots of interaction between friends and family~ Please bear with me ^^ Not long anymore till a certain someone will show up ;P  
  
Thanks for reading!  
All my gratitude to L for helping me out!  
  
XXX Voltage**


	5. Chapter 3

 

 

As it turned out, things turned very bad. Worse than bad actually.

And no, he didn’t mean the fact that the punch was utterly outrages. The note of orange flower was far too overwhelming for his taste, and quite honestly, anyone who did not think so clearly suffered a lapse of taste.  
This colour rich liquid they called ‘Orange Blossom Punch’ was an insult to Harmony himself. Jongdae only managed to gulp down half of his glass because there were countless of eyes on him, seizing him up and judging him in the same train of thought.  
But to put it into a nutshell this…thing made his tongue feel like a blooming ingot of lead in his mouth. That might not have been the best metaphor of his life, but the young heir of House Tekiel knew that it wasn’t any less true.

Anyway. This was not his actual problem. It was disgusting, and he wouldn’t even want rats to drink it, but it was not the point right now. The reason of his distress came in the form of his friends, or more the lack of them. Neither Kyungsoo, Sehun nor Chanyeol had yet made an appearance on this party and it was driving the brunet utterly mad. They had promised him to be here. All three of them had assured him of their presence, of their support and that they would definitely not let him alone.  
And where were they now?  
Even Kyungsoo was nowhere to be seen and he owned this rusting mansion! Not that Keep Hasting was actually developing rust… it was just a new trend in their language that was coming up.  
In their society where the most privileged could use metals to perform something that was very close to magic… it made sense, right?  
If you cursed, you called it ‘rusting’.  
And like with most linguistic influences no one could recall where it had come from, but everybody had easily adjusted to it and included it in their daily life language.  
As had he.

Jongdae let out an elongated sigh, hoping to somehow summon his friends to his side – to no avail. He straightened his back, the stuffy clothes he was wearing already taking a toll on him. The young Tekiel heir had never been a fan of formal clothing, but here he was, clad in something that looked very much like a uniform, with the high-collared shirt and the stiff vest on top. Fashionable these days as it was in remembrance of their greatest emperor yet.  
How was he able to even sit on a throne like this? Jongdae wondered, opening the cuffs on his arms a little. He would never get used to this. The brunet definitely preferred simple trousers, high but sturdy boots and a nice dress shirt that did not give him the illusion of being hugged by a giant snake.  
The left side of Jongdae’s face was covered by a fancy and expensive looking mask that was a dark and rich forest green. House Tekiel’s colour.  
Jongdae’s eyes had nearly bulged out of his head when he had received the mask in a package, coming straight from House Hastings with a note of his friend Kyungsoo attached. The brunet knew that the heir of the biggest of the great noble House’s had wanted to gift him something…but he had not expected _that_.

It was…so on point. It was everything the young male had ever imagined and then a little more as House Hastings could apparently not craft something without a few jewels on top.  
In retrospect, he should have expected this outcome. It seemed so detailed, fitting his face like a second skin and there was even a long feather of a magpie adorning the space around his ear. The magpie was depicted on House Tekiel’s emblem and the dark green background that was the base of it. Kind of ironic, paired with the glittering gemstones on the mask, right?  
But the brunet didn’t mind, he found it rather funny actually.

So yeah. Jongdae should not have been as surprised as he had been. He could probably live with the clothes if this whole torture wouldn’t go on until the early morrow hours and he could definitely live the beauty of a mask adorning his face. If he would have known about it sooner maybe he wouldn’t have avoided everything that called itself a mask-ball in the noble ranks.  
Then again, his assumptions were proved true. There was no one wearing a full mask to hide their identity. It was more like a way of entertainment for the higher ups as their life was apparently too boring with all the money, the gemstones and metal at their feet.  
Jongdae could not relate to their taste in games. He wouldn’t even mind this way of passing time if his _friends_ were actually with him.

But as he was clearly and obviously still alone here did Jongdae already scratch their names of his ‘friend-list’. Rust and Ruin they had been the whole reason why he had even dared to come! And also because of his curiosity. But how should he find out who of these people here was of House Izenry? Jongdae did still not know their House colour and even than did that not automatically entail that they followed the code of him and his ‘not-friends’.  
_Where are they?_ The brunet wondered again, imagining all the fun they could be having now after ditching their actual mission. (They had a bad habit of ditching important things, even if there was a glaring Kyungsoo behind their backs). They could sneak away to an upper floor where no one would have their eyes on them.  
Where his friends could actually stand closer together than separated by a metre what the nobles of the older generation would expect. Just because House Buvidas was the House of the least power.  
Their system was truly corrupted and not even a deity like Harmony could change that.  
If there was rich, there was poor. If there was open-mindedness there had to be close-mindedness as well. In balance. In Harmony.  
That did not mean that he particularly liked that setting, but it also made sense that they had to suck it up and live with it.  
Or actually evoke change.

They could be laughing about how silly Chanyeol looked with the fiery and bright red of House Buvidas drawn over his face and grumble at how lucky Sehun was with his classic black. (Which was a little boring if you thought about it, but what could go wrong with sleek, elegant black?)  
Don’t get him wrong by the way, Chanyeol did not look silly silly, it was just that Sehun and him loved to tease the giant and that the tall male was just… very receptive. Kyungsoo even forgave them for it – most of the time that is.  
Yet, these things were clearly off the table. Both of his missions actually, as there was no way in hell he would try to ask around and approach House Izenry on his own. He knew that his parents wouldn’t quite enjoy the fact that he was poking his nose into these matters. Even if they were actually related to him directly. It was just not the way a proper noble should act and behave they would say and give him that judging looked that he hated more than anything else. He might have dared to get a glimpse on the heirs of House Izenry but without Kyungsoo’s help he couldn’t even do that.  
He was an outgoing person. Jongdae usually had no problem to approach people… never had a problem with striking up a conversation or keeping it up.  
Yet, in this environment everything was different. It felt like every step you made was watched and everyone only waited for you to commit a blunder. To make a mistake so they could point their fingers at you.  
Jongdae didn’t want to disappoint his parents. He didn’t want House Tekiel to suffer because of him. He could be a clumsy klutz and that alone was reason enough to stay away from social gatherings like these.  
If people of the higher ranks wanted to hurt and backstab you, they would.  
They always found a way.

And so…Jongdae could not really be himself here. Could not be the kind and helpful guy that he actually was, as a warm heart was seen as weak. As _useful_. For selfish plans.

If there was something that the brunet disliked, it was being pushed around like a pawn on the board.

Jongdae shook the thoughts away. He should really try to find his friends. It was odd that they were nowhere to be found. All three of them at once.  
He had seen Chanyeol’s sister in the crowd already, her red dress drawing attention and jealousy all the same. So, if Yoora was here her brother should also have arrived already, right? One might think so…but Jongdae also knew his friend. Being a Tineye…often made him a little too adventurous. The absence of his friends was a mystery to him and made no sense at all – it only caused the young heir of Tekiel to grow more and more uncomfortable in this environment.  
Some of the tables in the grand hall were still left unoccupied and so did the brunet grab another one of those terrible drinks and walked over, sitting down after pulling out a chair. That gave him the possibility to watch the crowd and gain a little distance at the same time. There was probably nothing he could do but wait and watch nobles socialise, spinning lie after lie and forming pact after pact that they would probably break in the end.  
Or twist around.  
Damn.

Jongdae really wasn’t made for this group of people. It made him go all depressed and negative! Which was more than annoying.  
The brunet definitely preferred being silly – meaning poking fun at his friends and ignoring his noble upbringing.  
Anyway. For now, there was no way to escape this. And maybe Sehun, Chanyeol and Kyungsoo would finally move their butts here if he managed to survive a little longer. In the meantime, he had chosen to let his eyes wander over the groups of people and wonder who of them might be of House Izenry.  
And just who of them could be…his future spouse.  
He could easily scratch a few dozen of the list of potential persons as he recognised some faces even with the fancy masks on. Yet, that still left plenty.  
Jongdae wasn’t like Kyungsoo who could easily memorise faces, names and everything that came with it. That had always been his elder brother Joonmyeon’s role in their family.  
Jongdae was just… Jongdae. The least favourite son of the Tekiel family as he was neither really talented at economics nor was he an Allomancer like Jongin.  
A sigh left his lips at that.  
Had he mentioned how toxic this environment was for him?  
If he didn’t find any kind of distraction soon then….

“Terrible, isn’t it?”  
Jongdae looks up from the indeed terrible orange coloured drink in his hand. His brown orbs meet with similar dark ones that belong to a guy with black hair. A midnight blue mask covered his eyes from one side to the other and the brunet was actually quite taken aback that there was no decoration adorning the mask at all.  
No feathers, gems or lace to give it an edge and show off how wealthy the owner was. It was…plain. And that made this guy even more mysterious than any of those big and expensive looking masks he had already seen tonight on high born lords and ladies. He was standing out.  
People wanted to show off. Their masks kind of symbolised their influence in their society so to say and here on the Red Sun ball this kind of understatement actually drew more attention than anything else.  
Who was this guy?

“The drink?” Jongdae tilted his head, scanned the newcomer from head to toe. No. He couldn’t say that he had seen these features already. Nothing about this male rang a bell to him.  
“Definitely,” the brunet continued and made a face to underline his point before putting the cup down.  
_“It tastes like someone dropped the whole orange tree in it.”_  
Jongdae blinked as he realised that he and the stranger had said the exact same words at the exact same time.  
The male opposite of him started to grin, pulling out a chair and plopping down.  
“Finally someone with taste! Everyone else here seems to think that as long as it looks pricy and exotic the taste doesn’t matter. As if the exclusivity makes up for it. Pah! Nonsense, I tell you, and I very much value my taste buds.”

Okay.  
Two things.

Rusts, this guy could talk a lot. And second, that guy was absolutely right, which made the brunet’s lips tug upward in a big smile.  
He didn’t mind the stranger taking a seat next to him. At least he had his distraction now as this male seemed to be entertaining at least.  
“I agree. So. Uhm… seeing as we are on a mask ball… are we like supposed to keep our real names a secret?” the brunet asked, not really sure where this was coming from.  
Maybe not knowing the other’s identity made it more interesting.  
Like this… he could pretend that there was no noble name floating over him and could continue to enjoy his jokes and obviously flamboyant personality.  
The other seemed a little confused at first, blinking at him through the dark blue rims of his mask but then shrugged his shoulders with a big grin.  
“I don’t really know. But we could come up with names or something.”  
Jongdae nodded.  
Why not?  
It was…it was really strange that he had never seen this guy before when he actually seemed like he would fit in with his group of friends. A good sense of humour and a dislike for all the things pompous? Well, hello there new friend you are very welcome here.  
“Okay. So? What should I call you then, Mister ‘I value my taste buds’?”  
The male chuckled and shrugged his shoulders for yet another time.  
“I’m not really good at that.” His eyes wandered over the room, then to the windows, where the sun had long set.  
“Call me…Dusk.”

“Dusk?” Jongdae leaned back in his chair and blinked  
“That’s a really stupid name. Are you trying to be mysterious or funny?” the heir of House Tekiel snickered, not able to stop himself from teasing the male who started pouting now.  
“Hey!” he exclaimed, his lips still pulled into a pout. That male, Dusk, went from mysterious to adorably cute in less than five minutes.  
“I wasn’t the one looking utterly lonely and miserable like some damsel in distress, whom I came to rescue as I fancy myself quite the gentleman and can’t watch anyone drown themselves in bad liquor.”  
A loud huff was heard as Dusk crossed his arms over his dark vest, but Jongdae could tell by the slight upward corner of his mouth that they were both just teasing.  
Relief washed over him at that. He was honestly glad that they seemed to be dancing on the same wavelength.  
“That…stuff can hardly be called liquor. Anyway. Fine. Let’s pretend it’s not stupid and that I appreciate you saving me, a perfectly fine lad who is definitely not some…damsel…” he grinned and continued, “Then I am Dawn. Now we are matching in stupidity.”  
“It’s not stupid!” the male whined, but chuckled at the same time. Jongdae felt his chest feeling lighter. If he would have known that he could actually have fun on such parties…maybe he wouldn’t have avoided them at every chance he got.  
But then again, it was mostly Dusk being here and entertaining him that made the waiting for his friends worthwhile.  
“Besides, now it makes sense” Dusk spoke up again and reached out to nudge the brunet gently.  
“Dawn I mean. When you smile like that with the corner of your mouth tilted up like that it seems as if the sun is peeking out.”

Jongdae blinked as his heart skipped a beat.  
“What?”  
Was Dusk now trying to flirt with him? What?  
With _him_ of all people? A blush crept onto his cheeks, colouring them a bright red. He didn’t quite know how to handle this situation right now.  
“Eh….m…”  
The black-haired male cleared his throat, pink dust covering his own cheeks.  
“Too…much?”  
Jongdae nodded frantically, keeping his mouth shut.  
“Okay. Sorry about that. Let’s pretend I didn’t say that? I just wanted you to understand that it’s not stupid.”  
The brunet hummed, his spirits returning.  
“Fine. Noted. Not stupid.” His smile was back in place and Jongdae was pretty sure he heard the other male let out a sigh of relief.  
Had he really…worried about him being angry with him now? That was…really considerate of him actually.

Good!” the black-haired male grinned before extending his hand  
“Hi. I’m Dusk. I don’t particularly enjoy such social gatherings, but my family made me come here anyway. You seemed to be in the same boat, so I decided to come and save you so we could wail in our misery together.”  
That caused Jongdae to chuckle, nudging Dusk as if they have known each other for years already. A funny personality was really all it took for the young heir of House Tekiel to open up and let you in.

“Fine” he said, a small smile blooming on his lips as he took the other’s hand and shook it.  
“I accept your proposal.” A snicker followed by them both.  
“I am Dawn. Nice to meet you Dusk.”  
It was a silly game. Made up names when they both knew that they were just a farce? It shouldn’t be this entertaining, and yet, it was.  
Slowly but surely, he didn’t even mind the fact anymore that his friends had ditched him.  
If it were only Chanyeol and Kyungsoo he might think that they had sneaked off into the younger’s room to make out or…do whatever they liked to do.  
But as Sehun was also missing that was probably not the case.  
Or…he hoped so at least.

“Hi. I’m glad. No one in this rusting mansion looked like fun. And then I saw you being all alone and stuff so…you were kinda my last chance.”  
Jongdae pulled up an eyebrow at this.  
“I don’t really know if that’s a compliment or an insult…”  
Dusk immediately shook his head.  
“That’s not how I meant it. You turned out to be quite the character, so it’s definitely meant in a good way. So…why are you here all alone anyway?”  
Jongdae hummed, accepting the other’s explanation for now. Maybe he would prod more later.  
He shrugged his shoulders, a sour expression on his face.  
“My friends ditched me. Rusting friends they are. I only attended because they promised to be here.”  
The black-haired male licked over his lips before smirking.  
“Maybe you need some new friends. Someone who doesn’t ditch you but actually sits with you through terrible balls and even worse punches. Oh wow. Who is that good-looking guy over here?” Dusk exclaimed, showing more artistic talent than Jongdae would have thought as he pointed at himself, grinning, “It seems like this extraordinary lad wants to be your new friend!”

Jongdae couldn’t help but laugh at the other’s silly antics. They were right up his lane of humour and if he was honest had he a hard time not giving in to a laughing fit. Dusk’s faces were just hilarious!  
Yet, he decided to play the meanie for a little longer.  
“Nah…I like my friends….”  
Dusk visibly deflated at that, but as the brunet suddenly felt a little sorry for him he hurried to continue with a “but I don’t mind making new friends!”  
“Fine.” the male hummed, giving in, before he continued in dismissive manner “I’ll be one of many. Have it your way.”  
They both snickered and Jongdae couldn’t quite remember when he had last felt this carefree. Especially considering their surrounding right now, but it was like everything else had just melted away.  
Dusk really seemed like a good fellow.  
He kind of wished that he had met him earlier as they would probably be very good friends by now already. But that was not how fate and Harmony worked.  
Sometimes you had to take a million detours to arrive at a goal that only seemed a goat’s jump away. Jongdae didn’t feel like this guy had only approached him for his name…which was probably also thanks to the fact that Dusk had apparently no idea who he really was.  
Just as the brunet didn’t know his identity.  
But he didn’t mind.

“So. As we have established earlier I fancy myself an expert on good liquor and any kind of drinks. Have you heard of the King’s Knight?”  
The Tekiel heir could only shake his head. It didn’t ring any bell.  
“It’s a small tavern in the Blockstreet District. Close to the Zinc Gate. You can’t miss it. Four crossed swords on the sign, rather on the small side, faces a small fountain. It sells the best booze of Luthadel. You _have_ to try it. I promise that it’s worth your time.”  
Okay…  
Was Dusk actually involved in that business? Who knew…a surname would definitely help but apparently their whole game that was set up in only a few minutes was not about names.  
It was about them as individuals.  
“If you say so?” Blockstreet District was located at the very east of their capital, flanked by large streets that led from the Zinc and the Pewter Gate to the City Centre where the River Channerel flowed.  
“I can prove it. You in? Tomorrow after sunset?”  
Jongdae blinked.

There was a brief moment of hesitation that quickly dissolved the longer he looked into Dusk’s eyes. The male’s face really went well with that midnight-blue, he had to give him that.  
Was…he actually considering saying yes?  
He apparently did, as it had just tumbled out of his mouth, making Dusk smile even more.  
“Gotcha.”

Harmony.

What was he getting himself into? First, he got into a major fight with his parents. Then a fiancé was thrown his way and now he was agreeing to meetings with people he barely knew. Whose name he didn’t even know.  
But before he could utter any form of concerns, Dusk had suddenly vanished and in the background he heard Chanyeol’s voice calling for him.  
Rust and Ruin.  
He needed to consult Kyungsoo.  
Fast.

 **A/N:**  
_No notes again this time!_  
Thank you for sticking with me and for giving me support : ) This was already the third Chapter of Through the mists!  
Someone new was introduced. “Dusk”. Is he a friend or a foe? Jongdae will find out soon enough. And where have his friends gone off to?  
I hope Dusk made you laugh a little ;) He is wonderful to write.  
Thank you for L as she is the force behind all this.

 

 

_I’m working on the next chapter already, so please stay tuned!_

_xoxo Voltage_


	6. Chapter 4

 

He heard Chanyeol saying his name over the sound of the music, yet he found himself scanning the room for the male that he had just been talking to.  
Dusk.  
But even now when he had a better hold of his senses, when he was actually focusing on the faces of the people in the crowd… the male was nowhere to be seen.  
It was like he had been swallowed.  
He had vanished, just like that – right under his nose.  
It felt strange… as if the meeting with Dusk had been nothing more than a dream. Yet… that wasn’t possible, was it?  
The conversation they had shared had definitely been pleasant. Funny. Jongdae had been enjoying himself, letting down his guard to the point that he hadn’t even minded the absence of his friends anymore.  
He was good at approaching people – at finding the right words and opening up if he found the other party comfortable to be around.  
And even though Dusk was a complete stranger he had easily managed to make him laugh - which was, quite frankly, an attribute Jongdae valued _a lot_ in another person.

It couldn’t have been a figment of his imagination, right? Not the whole conversation and Dusk as a whole. He knew he had been bored out of his mind, being here at the party all alone and feeling out of place… but Jongdae had never believed himself crazy.  
Even his friends hadn’t implied said possibility – and they spit a lot of nonsense on a day. They being Chanyeol and Sehun of course. Sometimes Jongin too.  
Kyungsoo usually just snickered along when a joke got really funny. His humour was entertaining – he just rarely started jests first.

So… assuming he was not going all bonkers up there in his brain, it had been real.  
And… that also meant that yes, he had indeed agreed to meet Dusk tomorrow in that tavern he had mentioned.  
Harmony.  
Yeah, he really needed to talk to Kyungsoo. But first things first.

“There you are!” he heard Chanyeol’s voice getting louder as the three of his so called best friends finally sauntered up to him. They all stuck to the dress-code they had set their minds upon. Kyungsoo’s mask was of golden colour, Chanyeol’s was red and Sehun – the lucky bastard – went with black, an embroidery of a stag decorating the pocket of his vest.  
Jongdae ignored their happy faces, his eyebrows pulling up before he let out a really loud whine, grabbing Chanyeol’s collar and trying to shake the tall guy to his best ability. Only that this guy was being completely unfair with his height. Not that he would have had more luck with Sehun, as the blonde was of almost the same height.  
And well… he didn’t want to shake Kyungsoo.  
“I’ve been waiting here for hours! Where have you three been, huh?” he complained, shoving Chanyeol away.  
“You left me all alone here while you three where off doing who knew what!” Jongdae scowled now, his glare mostly targeting Chanyeol. The taller male just showed him an apologetic smile before he ruffles his dark locks and turns to face Sehun and Kyungsoo for a moment as if looking for the permission to talk. Okay.  
What had happened here?  
Why had they stood him up like that? Even Kyungsoo, his supposedly best friend. Well good thing he was broadening his horizon there, getting new friends…  


“Right!”  
Jongdae blinked, his eyes widening as he remembered something important.  
“Have you seen a guy coming from here? Maybe the same height as me, black hair… blue mask?” the brunet closed his eyes, trying to remember what Dusk had been wearing.  
“Uhm… dark vest. Might have been blue too… brown eyes, really strange grin?”  
Rusts, he should have paid closer attention! Dusk had been a pleasant presence and so his mind had easily drifted. He hadn’t been like all those other party goers who only looked for a chance to either stab you in the back or slip into your bed.  
It would really be a shame if it had been his mind tricking him… he had really liked Dusk.

All of his friends blinked, sharing confused gazes, before they shook their heads.  
“No one like that. At least not that I can remember.”  
Damn. If Kyungsoo couldn’t remember someone like that passing by them then there probably had been no one.  
That didn’t really help him with his quest in persuading himself of his sanity.  
Jongdae let out a sigh. But okay. He had kind of expected that.  
“Why, what happened?”  
The brunet waved his friend of.  
“Telling you later” he answered, sending Kyungsoo an upset pout. Yeah, he was damn unhappy, okay? He had been left alone… in a poisonous environment.  
Not exactly the most pleasant thing to do.  
“First, you three tell me where you have been! And why I wasn’t part of it!”  
He felt left out. Where they sharing secrets?  
He could live with Kyungsoo and Chanyeol being extra close, sharing gazes that held so much more than affection. They could communicate like this. And if Jongdae was honest, it was kind of scary sometimes.

“I’m sorry.” Sehun held up his hand before he steered them to the back of the room where they had a little more privacy.  
“That’s… my fault. I’m really sorry.”  
Well he better be.  
Jongdae still wore his pout, but it slowly eased away. Yet, he was still waiting for an explanation to all of this. And why he had been left out.  
It felt shitty, if he was allowed to say that.  
“My mum” Sehun began, shrugging his shoulders  
“She wanted me to bring a date to the ball. And I refused.” The brunet blinked. Okay… how did that all fit into the story?  
He tilted his head, waiting for Sehun to continue.  
“I told her I already made plans with the three of you and couldn’t bring the girl along. And well she started again…you know, the typical things. ‘You are misbehaving, son.’ ‘You just don’t want to act like a true man and accept your responsibilities, son’. Yada, yada.”  
Jongdae had to swallow at that.  
He could imagine how that must weigh on the younger’s shoulders. Elariel was important in the city. They were in charge of textiles and other forms of fabric. They often set trends in the city with the colours and the patterns they offered.  
Looking impeccable was important for every Elariel.  
Acting according to your manners, was absolute so to say. They all knew that Sehun’s family was strict.  
Which was probably one of the reasons why he was hanging out with the lot of them.  
They were…  
Different.

“Sehun…” Jongdae began, but the Elariel heir beat him to it  
“Nah, it’s fine.” he shook his head, before he continued sounding a little more chipper, “Besides, Chanyeol and Kyungsoo dropped by to pick me up. That made the lie more believable and she let me be… I think it’s mostly thanks to our midget.”

Jongdae sucked in a breath as he kind of feared that the mentioned midget would land a punch in the youngest male’s face. Yet, nothing came his way.  
The brunet blinked, looking at his black haired best friends who did not look happy, but also not about to murder someone.  
“That’s so unfair!” Chanyeol whined and Sehun only smirked smugly at that.  
“Why does Sehun not get the same treatment as me? Huh? Kyungsoo!” the tallest turned, facing his lover who only sent him a small smile  
“Because he is cute. And the youngest.”  
Chanyeol jutted his lip out, a dark glare directed at the blonde who was cackling now.  
“Besides. I don’t care what people say about me. But I care what you say about me.”

That definitely baffled the giant, who only stood there, his mouth slightly open. Jongdae couldn’t help but smile fondly at them.  
Kyungsoo was right of course – which was seemingly the reason why the tall brown-haired male was rendered speechless now. There was no admissible refutation to that.  
Jongdae brought his attention back to Sehun, who had the same look on his face.  
“Well, anyway.” he started and got the blonde’s attention, “It’s not even a lie.” Jongdae said, the corners of his mouth pulling up into his typical, happy smile.  
“You are hanging out with us!”  
Sehun snorted, a smirk on his face before he nodded.  
“Just that we are not talking like small Lords. We are having fun!”  
Jongdae adored his friends. They meant the world to him. And having been alone on this ball for a while had made him realise that again.  
Dusk had been funny – and he would really love to get closer to him – but they lacked familiarity. Well, maybe they could build that up.

  
“But hey,” Chanyeol piped up now, Kyungsoo sanding a little closer to him now than before. They were not touching though. They knew how to keep everything hidden from the public eye.  
“Who did she want you to take? As a date?”  
Of course Chanyeol would ask. And that with sparkling eyes and wagging eyebrows. Jongdae rolled his eyes at his friend’s unsubtle curiosity and yet, the brunet couldn’t help but feel interested as well.  
“Oh?” Sehun shrugged his shoulders, his eyes wandering over the crowd of the ball’s audience. All three pairs of eyes followed his gaze until the blonde had settled on someone, jerking his chin into that direction.  
“Her.” he simply said.  
Jongdae’s eyes nearly bulged out when he realised just whom his friend meant there. Flanked by her parents stood a beautiful young woman, her dark red hair artistically pinned up with white flowers.  
“Hyerim Haught?” Jongdae’s voice spoke of his disbelief. He nearly didn’t bring her name over his lips. She was the most sought after bachelorette in all of the Great Noble Houses – not because her House was one of the top ranks, it was third last to be exact, but because of her beauty and her wit.  
Apparently, she was a real catch, but Hyerim had yet to settle for someone.  
“Okay slow down there!” the brunet said, holding up his hands as if to stop someone from approaching.  
“Just… for me again. You were supposed to come here with Hyerim Haught. THE Hyerim Haught who is apparently the manifestation of everyone’s dreams as she is funny, witty, smart and pretty all at the same time?”  
Sehun nodded at the small résumé.  
“Yup.”  
“Okay. I mean no.” Jongdae shook his head, his brown orbs still wider than usual.  
“No. I don’t understand. Why are you not going with her then?”  
His blonde friend was about to retort when Chanyeol suddenly spoke up, his gaze just as confused as the Tekiel heir’s.  
“Mate. She is fucking hot! You must be rusting nuts to- angh!” he stopped mid-sentence  
“Oh, my bad, I didn’t see your foot there when I stomped down.” Kyungsoo deadpanned, grinding his boot into the elder’s and for a split second Jongdae felt sorry for the tallest of their group.  
That… must have hurt… but at the same time, his words had been clearly uncalled for.

But… it was just so damn funny. Jongdae and Sehun both had to hide their grins as they turned away from the couple.  
“I know, I know.” the blonde hummed, his head turning into Hyerim’s direction again.  
“She is great and all. She’s fun. She even knows how to hold her liquor!” he explained, genuine adoration for her in his voice.  
“Let me tell you guys, never challenger her to a drinking game. You. Will. Lose.”  
Jongdae and Chanyeol nodded dumbly. Kyungsoo just grunted. The brunet could understand that the smallest of their group wasn’t really interested and wished that a certain someone wasn’t either.  
Yet, they also knew that they didn’t need to worry. If Chanyeol loved one person in this world, it was Kyungsoo.

Jongdae pulled up his eyebrows.  
“Again, my question. Why are you not going out with her?”  
“No. No, Jongdae, that’s not even the question here!” Chanyeol exclaimed, eyes boring holes into Sehun’s.  
“The real question is, how in hell do you know her so well? And that behind our backs?”  
Sehun tilted his head, lips pulled into a thin line.  
“Soo, if you please.”  
“What- angh!”  
The younger’s boot came down again, smashing right into the same spot and Jongdae all but cringed. Rust and Ruin, that must have hurt.  
That must still hurt.  
“Soo!” Chanyeol whined, but neither Kyungsoo nor Sehun showed any pity for the tall male.  
“Soo, you know I am just joking…”  
The Hasting heir scoffed, turning away, “That doesn’t make it better, Yeol.”  
A sigh was heard and Chanyeol seemed to nod, the seriousness of the situation dawning on him. He would probably hold his big mouth now.  
For the time being.

“Both of our family’s summer estates are close. We hang out sometimes. She is fun. Really. But she is not my type.” Sehun finished, his face impassive.  
“Ah.” Jongdae hummed, as there was nothing more to be said. If Sehun wasn’t interested, then he wasn’t interested.  
Besides…  
Jongdae might know something about his friend that he desperately tried to keep a secret.  
And the brunet would keep it that way as well.

“Okay then.” he smiled gently at the tall blonde.  
“We are cooler than any girl anyway.” he tried to lighten the mood, trying to come up with a way to change the topic.  
And there was indeed something which could turn the tide here.  
“And now you are finally here.” the brunet smiled, feeling much better already. It had been stifling until a certain someone had come to his side.  
“But! You missed something!”  
Jongdae’s mood had brightened now, his lips pulling into a wide grin.  
“The guy I was asking about before? I was talking to him and he was really funny. Don’t try the punch by the way… it tastes terrible.”  
“Apparently, you didn’t miss us that much, huh?” Sehun smirked, folding his arms over his chest.  
Kyungsoo however, had a different expression on his face. Jongdae could read it easily. He was suspicious, and if he was honest, the brunet could see why.  
Rusts, even he himself was a little suspicious. Especially as he had even agreed to meet with Dusk just the next evening… Which might have been a premature decision. Yet, it had already been made.

And by now, Jongdae was actually sure that it had not been a trick of his mind. That though he had been bored before, he was convinced that his brain couldn’t come up with something like this.  
So Dusk had been real.  
Which was good. It meant a new friend, if… tomorrow didn’t turn out to be a disaster.

Jongdae found himself pouting. Of course his friends had to tease him.  
“You are still traitors…even though I had a little fun without you.”  
“Fine” Kyungsoo was the one to give in now, holding up his hands in defeat.  
“We are traitors, but we are here now, and all is well.”  
Oh damn.  
Jongdae knew that look on his friend’s face… It meant ‘You will talk to me about this. No excuses.’ and these talks with the younger never ended well for him.  
The brunet swallowed, mentally preparing to face Kyungsoo later. For now, he gave the other a nod, indicating that he had understood.  
“And!”  
Chanyeol’s noisy voice piped up, grinning.  
“Soo, I think I found them” the tall male shifted his gaze towards the crowd, into a specific direction.  
Kyungsoo nodded.  
“Good job.” He offered and Chanyeol beamed with happiness.  
Yeah, the tall brunet practically lived on praises. Especially if they came from his lover. Jongdae smiled at them, but then blinked, bewildered.  
“Wait. What do you mean?”

Chanyeol snickered, showing a thumbs up to him.  
“Someone mentioned a ‘Miss Baekhee’ and a ‘dear friend Lord Izenry’”  
Sehun nodded.  
“Good boy, indeed. Jongdae, are you ready to get a glance of your future?” he joked, nudging him in the ribs with his elbow.  
Jongdae could only sigh. He was thankful for the Tineye’s ability, but still…. Dread started to wash over him as he kind of wished that they had forgotten about this whole Izenry topic.  
It was futile, he knew.

  
“I guess.”  
It had been his plan to begin with, right? But now, he didn’t feel so ready anymore.  
However, he also knew that he had to pull through. If he refused, his friends would just drag him along. So he would save himself the trouble.  
His heart started to beat faster, nervousness taking over his body, and yet, he nodded.

“I guess, I can do this.” He repeated and looked into the direction Chanyeol indicated.  
“Let’s go.”  
If they moved as a group, they were less suspicious. Besides, his parents’ voices still rang in his ear, warning him of approaching anyone of House Izenry on his own.  
Nothing was settled yet. It was still a brittle compliance.  
They made their way through the ballroom, passing by countless of high-born who tried to look as busy and as important as possible. It was all a game.  
There were masters, and there were losers.  
Jongdae kind of counted himself to the latter group.  
The brunet picked up his pace, falling into step with the heir of House Buvidas, nudging his side to get his attention.  
“You didn’t have to”, he started, and by Chanyeol’s bright grin he knew that the other had understood what he was referring to.  
Using his allomantic ability here, in such an environment… with all the light and the loud music resonating of the walls of the mansion… it must have been uncomfortable for him.  
“I don’t mind. It didn’t take that long either.” Chanyeol nudged him back, his smile reassuring now.  
“Besides, I rather use my powers for my friends than for … you know. Spy…stuff.”  
Jongdae nodded.

Still. As far as he knew was it not possible to use Tin to enhance only one sense. But he might be wrong. Jongdae couldn’t use any metal… so it was only natural that… he didn’t __understand__.  
“Okay. Thanks.” The brunet beamed now, feeling a little better that he had friends like that around him. He could nearly forget the fact that they had left him alone at this ball for some gruesome hours.  
__It doesn’t matter__ , Jongdae thought. Dusk had been there to entertain him.

“This way” Kyungsoo’s voice caught his attention and the small male pulled him along by his wrist.  
They made their way up the grand staircase for what Jongdae assumed to be a better view on the people they were trying to spot.  
“I found out a few things. But not too much, I am afraid. Something… is off about them. You might probably be right…” the black haired trailed off, sighing.  
“Lord Izenry, named Baekil. Lady Baekhee must be the young daughter then…”  
Jongdae’s eyes widened for a moment at that comment.  
“Young? How young?”, he pressed, definitely not wanting to marry a small child. He dearly hoped that they were past such times.  
Kyungsoo just shrugged. “Not that young, probably around our age. She has a twin brother. Baekhyun.”  
But it seemed like only Baekil and Baekhee were attending today. If Chanyeol hadn’t overheard something – which was kind of easy in such a crowd.  
“The eldest brother, Baekbeom, has a thing for hunts. That’s all I found for the time being. Sorry.”

The brunet shook his head. “No. Thanks Soo. That’s… more than I could ask for.”  
Chanyeol stepped up then, rubbing his eyes for a moment before he nodded in a certain direction. All eyes followed and then they found what they were looking for.  
Black hair, straight backs… flawless masks. They weren’t held in a specific colour it seemed. Baekhee Inzenry’s mask was almost white, champagne maybe, but then again was Jongdae not really an expert in this. Her father’s mask was a dark blue, with a few gemstones here and there.  
They were clearly father and daughter – their jet black hair being the first indicator.

“Well… at least she is easy on the eyes?”  
She was.  
He couldn’t say anything about her personality yet of course, but what he saw… was clearly something worthy of looking. And she had a nice smile.  
Still… he knew there were two more possible candidates in the lot… Baekhyun and Baekbeom, if he had memorised that right.  
For highborn families like them marriage between the same gender was daily business. If you wanted to bring your Houses closer, but you both only had daughters? You married the daughters. It had never really been an issue in Luthadel or the other Dominances.  
“Mate.”  
He turned to come facing Chanyeol’s profile. The tall male was leaning over the stair’s railing, getting a good look.  
Maybe with his Tin on? Jongdae couldn’t know of course. He was no Seeker, who could feel allomantic pulses.  
“If that is your future… then let me say it’s not looking half so bad. Actually pretty good and busty- ANGH!”

The brunet didn’t even ask anymore.  
Kyungsoo’s foot must be planted again in Chanyeol’s, pushing down with all of his might. Jongdae couldn’t even feel bad for him. It was his own fault.  
“Sorry-“, the tall male rasped out and the brunet heard Sehun snicker in the background.  
“Won’t… Won’t do it again… ah…” he heard the other relax and straighten his back again. Kyungsoo must have shown mercy.

Jongdae couldn’t help but chuckle, bringing his attention back to Baekhee. What if it really was her?  
He wouldn’t know for sure for quite a while.  
The heir hummed, but nearly jumped out of his skin when the pretty female downstairs suddenly turned, and met his eyes.  
And then she winked.  
She rusting winked and Jongdae felt the heat rush to chis cheeks.  
It was impossible! Right? She… she couldn’t know… who he was. Or-  
“Mate”, Sehun said, patting his shoulder.  
“I think you are lucky.” He chuckled and waved to Lady Baekhee who nodded back, being as polite as expected from a Lady, before she turned back to the conversation of her father and what seemed to be a potential business partner.  
This…  
Had this really happened?  
“Hush” Kyungsoo piped up and pulled the three of them away.  
“Remember what your parents said? No direct contact. We should be leaving.”  
Jongdae nodded, agreeing. His mind was still swimming, trying to align the pieces, yet it was to no avail. She had felt him staring, perhaps?  
Some people had this kind of sense. There was no Allomantic power that could help you there, at least.

The heir of Hastings manoeuvred them through the large mansion until they made their way to the rooftop.  
The night air was brisk and filled his lungs, giving Jongdae the feeling of freedom.  
He hadn’t even realised that his chest had felt that constricted.  
“Well, that wasn’t so bad.” he smiled.  
The brunet felt a little relieved. His shoulder’s slackened and he didn’t feel as tense anymore overall. That was good.  
“She seemed nice.”  
Sehun and Chanyeol both rolled their eyes at him and even Kyungsoo looked at him with a speck of suspicion.  
“Hey!” he grumbled, his lips forming a pout.  
“Maybe I will ditch the lot of you. I’ll make Dusk my only friend.”

“Ah. That mysterious person… are you sure you haven’t imagined your knight in shining armour?”  
Yep.  
Jongdae would ditch his friends, Sehun first and just live happily ever after with Dusk as his friend and his future spouse.  
Sounded like a plan to him.  
“You are all such… !! Urgh!!”  
The brunet couldn’t even think of a rusting insult for them. Maybe it was because he wasn’t as inventive as Sehun in that department, or maybe it was because he actually cared for these idiots.  
Yet, it was probably the latter.  
“You will see! I’m meeting Dusk tomorrow evening. He’ll come. Then you will see that I didn’t make this whole thing up.”  
Jongdae continued pouting and chose to ignore the worried glance his best friend sent him.  
No – he was sure that it would turn out fine. He even felt a little more relieved about the Izenry thing as they seemed like polite people. Yet, Kyungsoo’s comment still had his stomach unsettled.  
He ruffled his hair, looking at his friends faces.  
  
Rust and Ruin.  
It would be fine.  
What could go wrong?

 

****A/N:**** _Hey there! Sorry this chapter took a little longer this time~ Real life got busier and busier but I won’t forget about this story of course! Many more chapters are about to come ^^ Thank you to everyone who read this and commented on the last chapter! Thanks for the support in form of subs as well_ : )  
  
_xoxo Voltage_


	7. Chapter 5

 

Chanyeol bowed deeply, offering his right hand to the person standing in front of him. The moonlight filtered through the translucent silky curtains of the large room, tinting everything in an almost ghostly light. It had something surreal and the tall male guessed that for outsiders it would definitely seem so.  
Yet to him - it was the reality he had always wanted, the very reality he craved.

Their faces were plunged in darkness though and yet, with his Tin burning inside of his stomach, Chanyeol could easily make out a familiar glint in the brown orbs of the male looking down at him. Dawn would soon be upon them, chasing away the moon and the night sky that gave them their privacy right now. They could still hear the faint sounds of the musicians playing in the ball room, even at this hour, but it was common that the musicians stayed until the last guest had left.  
Apparently, some must still be there, enjoying the late nightly hours in Keep Hastings, though Chanyeol was pretty sure that no one was dancing anymore. Which meant it was just the right time now. His heart skipped a beat when his hand got accepted, warm fingers intertwining with his own. Kyungsoo had always had his way with small gestures and they repeatedly sent him flying.  
His eyes darted to their entwined fingers, before he dared to look up again, meeting his lover’s dark chocolate brown orbs. He wasn’t sure if the smaller could make out as many details on his face as he could – but once again was the Tineye grateful for his allomantic ability.  
Like this he was able to adore the small heir of House Hasting even more. There was no resentment left in those deep orbs and Chanyeol let out a small sigh of relief at that.

He knew that he had overstepped a line today with all those comments he had uttered. The Tineye had genuinely tried to be funny for the sake of their friend Jongdae, who had seemed so bummed about this whole thing. Though, admittedly, when they had met up with him he had been in really good spirits.  
They had arrived late due to the inconveniences at Sehun’s home and all three of them had already started to feel bad. They had promised him that they would be there and…  
Well, in the end everything had turned out for the best anyway.  
They had gotten a glimpse of one of the three Izenry siblings, and after their accomplished mission they had retreated, enjoying their time as friends more than mingling with the highborn crowd.  
Still, he knew that he had had hurt Kyungsoo’s feelings with his attempts at being funny. He should have thought of his own beloved first.  
Or warned him, perhaps.

But looking into Kyungsoo’s eyes right now he knew he was forgiven. As long as he had learned his lesson the younger was actually fast at putting things like that aside. If he had really overdone it then Chanyeol wouldn’t have been allowed to enter the younger’s room tonight. Or maybe for a whole week, depending on the size of his mistake.  
Yet, here he was. This time he was safe. Kyungsoo had probably understood his intention regarding their friend Jongdae. Straightening his back, he sent a beaming smile at the smaller before stepping closer, eliminating the distance between their bodies, and wrapping his arm around Kyungsoo’s middle. His other hand stayed intertwined with Kyungsoo’s, who let Chanyeol lead him to the soft sounds of music that reached their ears.  
The melody was more than crystal clear to him, his Tin burning in his tummy and making it easier for him to lead the other through the dance.  
This was it. It didn’t matter to them that they could only be together like this, that they could only dance alone in the dark – for Chanyeol these moments lit up his life like a million fireflies.

Judging from the shy smile on Kyungsoo’s face, he could say that the younger was feeling the same. They had known each other for a long time and had been best friends long before they first felt different sparks igniting their hearts.  
The Tineye took pride in his ability of reading Kyungsoo’s expressions pretty well. After what seemed like the third song, he felt his Tin reserves coming to an end and so he extinguished it, the room around him falling dark, the music becoming a very faint buzzing noise in the background.  
Like this, he couldn’t even make out when this song ended or when the next began, but it wasn’t like it really mattered to them. They cherished these moments together, never taking each other for granted.

“What’s on your mind?” Chanyeol asked as he had watched his lover biting his lower lip for a while. It was quite obvious that Kyungsoo wanted to say something, had something burning on the tip of his tongue, but held it in in favour of their shared moment.  
Chanyeol would have none of that. If there was something to be said, then it needed to be said as well. No need to beat around the bush, right?  
Kyungsoo only shrugged his shoulders, letting out a hum to tell the taller that he didn’t mind keeping mum. Their dance continued and though his lover was obviously struggling with himself, he never miss-stepped even once.  
His upbringing was clearly showing here. As a born Hasting, the wealthiest of the Great Houses of Luthadel, impeccable behaviour was expected of him.  
And well, if you asked Chanyeol, Kyungsoo was pretty much amazing and perfect to begin with.

He kind of had an idea what was bugging the other, with everything that was currently going on, but he wanted to give the smaller a chance to explain himself. To lay out his thoughts and make Chanyeol understand. His natural curiosity wasn’t even the reason for this, but his wish to genuinely understand his lover and offer him support.  
Chanyeol… loved Kyungsoo like he had never loved anyone before and the thought of losing him, of not understanding him, scared him greatly.  
Besides, he had always been the type who talked first and thought later. And he was trying to make Kyungsoo loosen up a little as well, but it wasn’t so easy with the strict upbringing the younger had grown up with.

“It’s Jongdae” he finally said and Chanyeol hummed in acknowledgement. He had already guessed that, but he was wondering what exactly his lover was thinking about.  
Their brunet friend had seemed quite upbeat when they had said their good-byes a good hour ago. The amount of wine they had consumed over the night had probably played a bigger role in this as they wanted to admit, but at least they had separated with smiles on their lips.  
Sehun had left right then and there, leaving them behind on the balcony that oversaw the back garden of Keep Hastings, while Jongdae had to take the ‘usual’ way out. Meaning actually using the stairs and the front door.  
All three of them wished that there was something that they could actually do to help out their friend that wasn’t as drastic as running away or faking his death. Yet, they came up with nothing but unrealistic scenarios. As their friend had pointed out, should he reject the whole deal, the ordeal of an arranged marriage would fall onto Jongin’s shoulders.  
And Jongdae, as the big brother, really couldn’t let that happen. So, their hands were tied in this.

Their feet stopped moving and Kyungsoo let out a tired sigh. It was late after all and everything was plugging at their nerves.  
“So, what’s up with him?” Chanyeol broke the silence again and nudged his lover to animate him to a last dance for tonight. Kyungsoo eyed him through his eyelashes for a moment, but eventually gave in. Secretly, the tall male loved that about the younger.  
“Aside from the obvious of course. At least Izenry seems to be blessed in terms of looks, if the young Lady is anything to go by.” He offered a grin to the other but as Kyungsoo just stared at him with slightly narrowed eyes he mumbled a short apology and as a quid pro quo the younger refrained from stepping on his feet again. His left one was still throbbing from the other’s assault earlier, thank you very much. He definitely needed to watch his mouth better.

“Idiot” left the younger’s mouth and if Chanyeol wouldn’t be trained to Kyungsoo’s soft voice he might have missed it. Without Tin that was, as he kept his last minute full of power as a reserve for now. He knew that he needed to consume the remaining metal in him before he went to sleep or else he’d wake up sick to his stomach. And seeing as he needed to sneak out of the mansion tomorrow without getting caught… that didn’t sound like such a good idea.

The other lifted his head, meeting his eyes again.  
“It’s not even that.” he started and Chanyeol tilted his head, genuinely curious what the younger might be talking about instead then.  
“It’s… this person he talked about. That guy? Dusk? It’s stuck in my head. Who is he?”  
As the heir of Hastings was a member of the highest nobility - like ‘really out of reach’ nobility even for Chanyeol, who actually belonged to that group of society - he had been schooled in almost every noble family’s history. Kyungsoo probably knew more about House Buvidas than Chanyeol did himself.  
“It’s not even that guy’s real name, right?” the smaller said with their feet still moving around in his large room.  
“Dusk. It sounds like a really bad code word or name for a spy. Oh Harmony… what if that guy is a spy Yeol?” the black-haired male looked up again, worry swimming in his eyes as his hold on the taller’s hand and shoulder tightened.  
But the elder just shook his head, squeezing back.  
“I don’t think so. Wouldn’t it be terrible obvious for a spy to introduce himself with an obvious spy name? It might sound like something I would come up with though…”  
At that, he saw Kyungsoo’s lips forming a big heart, the smile reaching his eyes.  
“Yeah. You would.” He said, biting back the laughter that threatened to overcome him.  
“Ya, Lord Hastings! I would be the most unobvious-obvious spy ever. You know it. I’d be out gathering information for you during the day and during the night~”, he trailed off, wriggling his eyebrows suggestively at his lover, “I’ll come to warm your bed.”, the tall male finished, grinning even more now and Kyungsoo rolled his eyes at his exaggerated story, but without trying to hide how the corner of his lips were twitching.  
“Stop that, Yeol. Be serious!” he argued, but as he nearly choked on his own laughter, did Chanyeol know that he must have done something right.  
The taller would take down kingdoms for this heart-warming smile in the matter of a heartbeat.

They come to a stop in front of Kyungsoo’s bed and though they are still trying to stifle their laughter they know that this was actually a serious conversation they were trying to have.  
They drop down on the bed, with the taller placing his head on the smaller’s tummy, both of them staring up at the ceiling. Chanyeol appreciates moments like this, loves the way how his lover’s hand comes down to comb through his tousled hair.  
“We agree on this.” The smaller mumbles after a moment of silence between them.  
“It’s not his real name, but it is quite obvious so. Jongdae is probably aware of that too.” They were both sure of that – Jongdae was smart and you definitely didn’t need to be a scholar to figure that mystery out.  
“And it doesn’t sit well with me that we have no idea whatsoever who he is. For real, I mean. And why he picked Jongdae out of all people at that party.”  
There he went again, Chanyeol chuckled.  
Kyungsoo liked to analyse things a little too much maybe. He wasn’t a fan of surprises either so he was prone to overthinking things.  
It was amusing to him, if the taller was honest. But he was also aware of the graveness of this topic. He was a little suspicious of this whole thing too.  
If he was around their age, why had they never come upon him before?  
There were many possibilities unfolding in front of the taller but every road seemed just as likely as the next.  
So they could only remain in place and wait.

“I know. I’ll keep my eyes and ears open if you want.” he offered to his younger lover. Perhaps he’d pick up spying again. Wouldn’t be the first time he had acted as one and also not the first time he would do it for Kyungsoo. Being a Tineye had its perks… but it had just as many downsides.  
His family often made him do minor spying jobs too. If they could even be considered as such. It was mostly just listening extra well on gatherings and picking up anything that was said in hushed tones or behind closed doors.  
His eyes wandered back to the heir of Hastings who seemed to consider the idea for a moment. It was obvious to the older how the other was trying to find the best solution for their problem. Then, after what seemed like a long moment but what probably wasn’t more than a few seconds, he shook his head.  
“We’re probably just being paranoid. Let’s not overreact… yet.”  
Chanyeol shrugged at this.  
“If you say so.” he answered, making up his mind about trying his best anyway. Maybe something would come up, then they had a clue to follow.  
“Enough of this now.”  
The taller blinked as his attention was pulled to heart shaped lips that formed the prettiest and most honest smile.  
His heart skipped a beat, being utterly spellbound by the other all over again. Why did this happen every time? Even though he had seen Kyungsoo smile, laugh and grin countless of times… it took his breath away each time anew.  
He was yanked forward, both of them knowing where their destination was. Small hands started to unbutton his vest button by button and Chanyeol couldn’t help but let out a small growl at Kyungsoo’s teasing manner.  
What seemed like an eternity later, with the both of them settled comfortably on the mattress of the younger’s bed, his vest finally came off.

It was time that they concentrated again on what was between them alone in the here and now.

 

**_❉_ **

****

Okay, so how far gone had he been yesterday that he had thought this would be a good idea? Jongdae didn’t know. And he had no clue how he could have been thinking that nothing could go wrong.  
Honestly, at the moment he felt like everything was going wrong. At the same time.  
When he had returned home after spending most of the night with his friends, and cups filled with chilled wine, he just had to run into his parents. Into his dad to be precise who had been quite displeased with his drunken state.  
Everything had escalated pretty quickly then, with his father telling him how much of a disappoint he was. How he rather got drunk with his friends than mingle with the right people that would prove as favourable business partners.  
Jongdae might have screamed back at him, how he wasn’t even the son designated to take over the business and how he was already doing enough for the family’s prestige with accepting this rusting arranged marriage.  
Only to realise that all of his complaints fell on deaf ears.

He had stormed to his room, passing a sorrowful looking Jongin on the way.  
The brunet felt sorry that his younger brother had heard this. He knew that Jongin felt guilty for this whole thing… as it was quite obvious that Jongdae had only accepted this deal to keep Jongin out of this mess.  
However, the older was done with pity.  
He had slammed the door and dropped face first onto his bed, clothes still on his body.  
His night had been anything but restful, but now he was here, looking at himself in the mirror he had in his room… and it was quite clear just how much he was not ready for today.  
He looked terrible, dark circles forming underneath his eyes and his hair was sticking in every possible direction.  
And quite clear was also the promise he had given to a certain someone yesterday evening.  
Dusk – the guy who knew him as Dawn.

No problem – or so he had thought yesterday.

That had been around noon when he had just gotten up. With enough time at his hands till the evening hours would come around, Jongdae had thought that everything would be a piece of cake. Which… brought him to his current problem.  
The brunet was supposed to be there in roughly one hour, give or take a quarter more or less. And he had no idea how to get there. Or what to wear.  
Or what to tell his parents should they catch him sneaking out. Everything would definitely be easier if they stayed oblivious about this certain adventure of his but…  
One could never know.

Theoretically, he didn’t even need to know how to get to that tavern near Zinc Gate. House Tekiel maintained quite a few private carriages that he could use whenever he wanted. However, if he should choose these means of transportation… his parents would definitely know.  
And that was a no go.  
He didn’t want them to know. This was his own little thing and he kind of had no idea how they would even react to this.  
As he couldn’t tell them if he was an important member of the high society… would they probably disapprove.  
So he would keep this whole thing under close wraps.

And nothing of this solved a single problem of his.

Well, there was definitely only one way how he could get there, he had to go and find the way himself. Or maybe he could hire a city carriage if he came across one and was already far enough from their district. But this also offered more insight regarding his choice of clothes. He definitely couldn’t go out there looking like a nobleman. Someone might easily recognise him and that was not what he had in mind.  
He wanted to have fun.  
He wanted to be Jongdae, the young boy whose childhood had been far too short and not Lord Jongdae Tekiel, second son of Master Tekiel.  
Today, he only wanted to be… Dawn.

He chose the simplest outfit he could find in his closet, deciding on dark trousers and a simple light button up combined with a grey vest that he closed hastily.  
Time was running short by now and finding garments that didn’t show of his family’s crest had proven time consuming enough.  
At least, the brunet felt comfortable like that.  
He sneaked out of his room, taking the large staircase into the hall, cursing every time when he saw a servant pass him.  
_< i>Just look like you’re not about to head out to meet someone. Just act…. Normal.</i>_  
Jongdae waved awkwardly at everyone that passed what earned him more than one sceptical look. It seemed like the whole ‘act like you’re not up to something’ thing hadn’t worked.

Rusts.

As soon as he manages to get out of the manor he bolts – his feet nearly stumbling when he ran over the cobblestones of the street that brought him directly to the River Channerel. His heart was pounding in his ears and he really feared that he had messed up.  
That someone would tell his parents and that they would find out about his adventures and about Dusk and…  
Then they would take even this form of joy and entertainment from him.  
Heaving, he came to a stop, his breathing heavy as he tried to gulp down large amounts of air. He bent over, resting his palms on his thighs as he caught his breath.  
Damn… It felt like his heart was going to jump out of his throat. His ears were ringing but he knew that there was not much time left.  
His hand quivered a little as he raised it, waving over a carriage that stopped not too far from him and would take him on. Two dark brown horses pulled the cart and Jongdae found himself smiling immediately. He had always been fond of horses and these two looked really friendly. Still, he remembered yet again that this wasn’t the time nor the place.  
The carriage driver looked at him with a worried glance, but the brunet quickly put a boxing into his hands before he got in.  
He didn’t want the man to worry, he was doing perfectly fine. And everything was going well.  
This carriage would bring him to the King’s Knight and-  
Oh.  
  
Rust and Ruin!

Jongdae pushed the curtain out of the way, his head sticking out.  
“The King’s Knight Tavern near Zinc Gate, good man!”  
His cheeks burning with embarrassment, he ducked back in. Had he really forgotten to tell the driver where he wanted to go?  
Yeah, it seemed so.  
Rusts… what was happening to him? Why was he so damn nervous about this?  
Maybe… Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea after all. But now it was already too late.  
The horses’ hooves clattered and only a few moments later they crossed one of the many bridges spanning the big river that divided Luthadel into two parts.  
Had he really ran this far? Wow, apparently he had more stamina than he had thought.

Block Street District wasn’t too far from here and Jongdae was sure now that he would make it in time. It was the place to be for travellers, wandering merchants and the like. Smaller business grew well in that area and House Tekiel had their own establishments there. Everything under close wraps of course. More secrets and more secrecy.  
Exactly what Jongdae was good at.  
Yet, he had studied everything his father had thrown at him even though it was not his… main focus. How Joonmyeon put up with all of this?  
He didn’t know, but he was glad that he could. Otherwise everything – including their biggest businesses in Southern Bridge(**) – would fall into his hands.  
No thanks.

Hopefully did Harmony have other plans for him.  
Like meeting Dusk… in a tavern he had never been to. Would he see the other without a mask today? He hadn’t even thought about that! But they needed to meet in casual attire… so no masks either.  
They would immediately gather attention if they would wear such accessories.  
And Jongdae hoped that the other knew this too. After all, he had clearly been the humorous type – and though it had been clear that he wasn’t on the dumb side… Jongdae didn’t know Dusk.  
So he could only send a short prayer to Harmony. Or better, the Survivor. <i> _Please let me survive this. </i>_

The carriage came to a hold, causing the brunet to jerk forward.

Already?  
Jongdae opened the door of the carriage and handed another boxing to the driver who accepted the money with a big grin, before biting into it. Ah… men and their suspicion…  
Well better safe than sorry, right?  
The whipping sound came and the horses whinnied as they started to pull the carriage again, leaving Jongdae in Zinc Street, only a few metres from Zinc Gate.

Finding the tavern was easy enough after that – Dusk had mentioned the sign that represented the establishment he had mentioned. Four crossed swords.  
He nodded to himself, pleased that he had managed to come here by himself and even finding the tavern in a district that he didn’t frequent often. A few steps and he was already standing in front of the door.

He hesitated.

Why was he hesitating only now? He heard music coming from inside, but that wasn’t surprising for this hour. The brunet had crossed half of Luthadel to come here… to meet Dusk.  
His new acquaintance whom he desperately wanted to befriend.  
Maybe this idea was born from the predicament he found himself in, but it didn’t matter as long as his feelings were true right?  
Dusk seemed interesting and he was one of these people who didn’t care much for politicking.  
Exactly what he needed.  
So why… couldn’t he push the door open?  
Rust and Ruin what was he doing here! Jongdae grumbled at himself as he felt the need to give himself a pep talk. But it was working.  
He felt better already, remembering how much fun he had had.  
And if Dusk didn’t come or was weird, he’d just go home. They were meeting in a public place so there was no need to worry.

Jongdae made up his mind, completely ignoring that the sounds from inside the tavern were getting louder.  
He must be looking like a fool here, standing right in front of a bar and not going in. Someone was clearly fighting inside there, but Jongdae knew that drunk people tended to speak their mind.  
Which didn’t always have the best results…  
And Dusk was probably in there, so!

A hand suddenly gripped his wrist, pulling him away from the door. Jongdae, blinks in confusion but then his eyes meet dark, warm brown orbs.  
“Not now” comes the other’s voice before the brunet is being pulled away.  
“It seems they’re having bad business, or something… Rusts…”

Jongdae let Dusk pull him along, just down the street and into an alley. He wanted to protest, but they didn’t venture far, just so they weren’t in the way for carriages or the like.  
Dusk turned, his black hair hugging his face perfectly but what caught his attention the most was the way the dark eyes of the male glistened with amusement and mirth.

It was really him – Jongdae had to blink, taking in the other’s face without the dark blue mask from the evening before.  
But there was no mistaken.

Dusk was standing in front of him, hip slightly cocked as he crossed his arms, a pout forming on his lips.  
“You were totally about to ditch me there!”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Boxing = Clips and Boxings are the Currency  
> ** Southern Bridge = A district in Luthadel near the Canal docks
> 
> A/N: Sorry for taking so long! But of course I haven’t forgotten about this : ) Real life doesn’t give me as much time to write as I would like, but I’m trying my best!  
> Dusk is back!  
> Wasn’t Jongdae cute? ;) What will happen next? Any guesses? And just who is Dusk, really?!!
> 
> xoxo Voltage


	8. Chapter 6

“

 

“Rusts!” Jongdae cursed, trying to get the dust off his dark green vest. He brushed his hands over the soft fabric, trying to clean it with his fingers, which resulted in the material getting even dirtier.  
Rust and Ruin, he should have known that this had been a bad idea.  
Digging through the remains of what used to be carriages and boxes of Tekiel goods had been a bad idea from the start – doing so with Chanyeol at his side was even worse.  
The tall male picked through the rubble easily, pulling and pushing broken parts aside which resulted in yet another cloud of dust enveloping them.  
Chanyeol didn’t seem to care – and judging by his choice of a dark grey top he had foreseen this dirty undertaking.  
Or just put two and two together.

As Jongdae should have done when his friend had popped up at his balcony.  
And no, he didn’t want to know how the tall brunet managed that without Sehun’s help. Knowing that Chanyeol could probably hear anything he whispered or muttered was already creepy enough. Allomancers were still… an enigma to him.

The brunet had grinned at him, waving his hand as if nothing bad had happened. Only that the exact opposite had been the case.  
“There has been a raid on Tekiel goods. Just this morning. Wanna dig with me through the rubble to search for any clues?”  
Jongdae didn’t remember signing up for the local law enforcement group. And he still found himself agreeing, going with Chanyeol to the crime scene. If Tekiel goods had been the target… then this was important. Why would anyone attack their carriages?  
Tekiel had steadily increased their exports and their businesses were going better than ever. Which was probably why his father wanted to secure their influence and power with his planned marriage to the heir of House Izenry.  
His thoughts kept drifting and he wondered for a moment if some member of the other Houses might have been involved.

Would they really retort to such measures?

Jongdae had to admit that facing the fact that his own father married him off for status and money… everything seemed possible.  
And now there was the issue of finding out what this was about.  
Jongin had joined them, but his younger brother was staying at the sidelines, talking to the guards and officers there who had been first to arrive.  
Well, and judging by Chanyeol’s concentrated gaze was Jongin also using his Coppercloud to keep the Tineye off the radar while the elder listened for any information hidden between the lines.  
Any words whispered among the guards that shouldn’t reach the ears of nobles.  
But so far he hadn’t found out anything unusual.  
“Urgh, I didn’t need to know that” the brunet commented, grunting. He pushed aside a broken chest, his face slightly more relaxed.  
Jongdae understood by now how Chanyeol worked.  
Keeping the Tin burning all of the time would overchallenge his senses. Especially if they were trying to find a way through all of those utterly smashed parts. It would be too loud. So his friend turned his powers on and off.

“This sucks. Everything your family had loaded is either broken or burned in some kind of explosion…” There were broken potteries everywhere, broken silverware pieces, shattered glass. Jongdae bit his lower lip. Some of the boxes that had been used for transporting the wares were either coming apart, utterly smashed or burnt.  
What had happened here?  
His family had worked hard for this. It wasn’t like they got this wealth from doing nothing. His older brother did his best to arrange the best prices and best contracts. And they had small workshops all around Luthadel where employees made these goods.  
This was… such a waste.

People had worked hard for this.

“If someone has a problem with our business he can come straight out and tell us.” he muttered, kneeling down to pick up a small glass vial that had miraculously survived the attack.  
He smiled a little and put the glassware into his coats pocket. Yeah that one had to get washed as well. But his coat was at least a dark brown. His vest however!  
Jongdae still mourned it. He could probably throw that one away.

Perhaps if he hadn’t been up so late yesterday, his brain would have made a better decision.  
But as it was, he had been out almost the whole night with Dusk, in some tavern down the street from the one they actually wanted to meet in. There had been some fighting going on inside the establishment they had originally wanted to visit and so Dusk had pulled him to another place.  
He hadn’t minded.  
The drinks had been good – better than that strange flower water – and the company had been even better.  
“Base to Jongdae, base to Jongdae…. Are you there? You have this far off look on your face…” his friend commented.  
“No, it’s nothing!” the younger immediately said, waving his hands dismissably.  
“I am crying over my vest. Even though it’s dark this dirt will probably leave stains anyway!”  
Chanyeol shrugged his shoulders at that.  
“Well, it was kind of clear that ‘let’s investigate the rubble’ includes some digging in dirty things, right?”  
Jongdae growled at that, but he nodded regardless.  
Whatever, he could let the brunet have this moment. If he would have to choose between his night full of laughter and happy banter and this piece of clothing that was now probably ruined, he’d choose the tavern night each time again.  
Dusk had turned out to be even more entertaining than the first time they had met.  
And it had felt…refreshing.  
Especially the fact that his father didn’t know of this. This was his thing alone and he couldn’t take it from him.  
His secret, something that his family couldn’t ruin. Neither he nor Dusk spoke of their real names. They weren’t important anyway. They were both from the upper class, as such was obvious from the location they had first met but… for once names held no power.

And Jongdae had to say that he cherished this a whole lot. To be Dawn. And not one of the Tekiel boys.

“I found this” Chanyeol’s voice reached him and he turned around to face his friend who offered him a piece of fabric.  
It seemed to have been ripped of a vest or a uniform. The blue was too light to be from a pair of pants, but…  
This didn’t really help.  
Jongdae took it regardless, looking at it with his eyebrow’s furrowed.  
“Let’s say we are right and this really wasn’t an accident… then who could…” Jongdae muttered, but trailed off after a single heartbeat  
“No. This doesn’t really help. There are at least half a dozen noble houses that have a connection to the colour blue. Even Elariel’s second colour is blue.”

So this was actually no clue at all.  
Except for the fact that they knew now for sure that someone had been here. Someone had been involved.  
Tekiel employees usually wore green, if they were officials.  
Had some random person been here, got his clothing ripped and left before the raid had happened?  
“I know. But someone has been involved. I pulled this off some half-broken chest over there.”  
The tall male pointed into the direction, but Jongdae didn’t follow it. It was enough that the goods had been ruined, but some of the horses that were designated to pull the wagons had been killed as well. And the young heir of Tekiel didn’t want to face that gruesome sight.  
He had enough of that already.  
Luckily most of the horses hadn’t been brought here yet – the employees of their family had apparently been in the verge of packing up the goods or re-arranging them when the attacked happened – or had been able to escape. They had lost four according to the guards, and these were already four too many.  
He knew that this shouldn’t bother him. His father would scold him for showing such emotion and care for something as low as animals.  
But Jongdae was already used to defying his father – he cared. And he cared for more than just money in his life. The brunet cared for his friends and family, their workers, beasts…  
It was just in his nature to do so and he had decided that this was the part of him that no one would ever break – would ever change.

Closing his eyes for a moment, he sent a short prayer to Harmony and hoped that nothing worse would come their way.

But that was written in the stars.

It was Chanyeol’s firm grip on his shoulder that eventually got him back to the here and now. He pocketed the piece of fabric for safekeeping.  
At least did his friend know that it was better if Jongdae held onto it. Chanyeol was a little… forgetful. Perhaps this piece of clothing would come in handy and could serve as a clue. But right now was Jongdae without any of those, literally clueless.  
“Why would they do that?” he whispered out and initially knew the answer to his own question. Power.  
Everything in this city was about power.

The noble Houses were constantly warring for more influence, for more money and better goods. They expanded their mansions, paid their servants and employees even less than they already did – the usual things, actually. This form of power play shouldn’t come as a surprise and still… Tekiel hadn’t been the target of such attacks for a long while.  
Jongdae couldn’t even remember when the last time had been, though his older brother Joonmyeon probably did. He knew everything about their family business – about the very first carriage they had shipped, their canal taxes, pottery ware and their weapon deliveries now.

Actually, the brunet was a little surprised that rogues hadn’t been sent to attack their things sooner, or to destroy goods in some of their workshops or canal boat ports.  
House Tekiel was grand yes, but not very well liked under the leadership of his father… who was a very serious, but overly strict, business man.  
Jongdae hoped that when Joonmyeon would take over one day the waters between the other Great Houses and Tekiel would soothe.

“We both know the answer, don’t we?” Chanyeol hummed and the smaller brunet could only nod to this. That was indeed true – power and influence. Tekiel was the third most important House here after all in Luthadel and many might think that they would profit from their House’s downfall.  
“Yeah… it hasn’t been the first anyway… I think my father mentioned something about rogues or raiders some two months ago already. But back then it hadn’t been that big… or important enough to catch his attention” he waved his had dismissively.  
How had his father been able to ignore this so easily?

To brush it aside? Attacks on their own people?

“Hey”  
Jongdae once again came back from his thoughts, blinking.  
“Yeah?”  
“Nini is really trying his best, huh?”  
The brunet blinked again, tilting his head at the mention of his younger brother. A carriage had brought him here and waited down the street for Jongin’s departure again. Jongdae could say so easily – even from a distance he could make out the vehicle and its driver. One of their own household of course. It had taken the younger quite some time to get here.

“Yeah, I asked him to come. He needed quite some coaxing though” he explained then for his friend  
“I asked him to talk to the officials while we dig through the rubble. Meaning, I gave him he more terrible job, of course” he grinned now.  
Chanyeol chuckled.  
“And you told me digging through rubble was a terrible idea. I hope you take that back!”  
Jongdae waved his hand as he tried to evade his friend who was currently trying to poke his ribs. No thank you, Chanyeol had the habit to miscalculate his own strength and Jongdae had suffered through enough bruises on his torso already.  
“But that’s not the only reason he is here, right?” his friend pressed on then and the brunet gave in easily.  
“Yeah” he hummed “He has been inside a lot. Especially his room… so I thought some fresh air would help.”  
Him talking to different people… even if it were only the city officials or the law keepers. It was better than nothing. Not everyone could be outgoing like Chanyeol or his brother Joonmyeon.  
Or Dusk for example…

A smile crept on his lips as he thought about the other male.

“Do you think there was a trigger of some sorts?” the taller prompted and Jongdae could only sigh at that.  
“I can only guess.” He told his friend.  
“He ran into Sehun last week. I heard that he tried to get through to my brother… even tried to bribe the butler to open the door for him, but you know Jongin…”  
Once again he could only sigh at this.  
“And yeah… you know how he gets when Sehun tries to talk to him. Even when he is really subtle, trying to take it slow… Jongin just… blocks.”  
And he still didn’t know the reason behind this – why Jongin acted that way. His brother and Sehun… they grew up together.  
They had been closer than Sehun was now to him or to Chanyeol.  
But then, around the time when they found out that Jongin had the ability to use Copper… these two had stopped talking.  
First it had been mutual… but after a while Sehun had tried to mend things.

It had looked like it at least.  
Yet, Jongin had tried his hardest to avoid his former best friend. And ever since then the situation hasn’t changed. He had tried to talk to his younger brother – multiple times even – but the other always told him that everything was alright.

Which was, obviously, a lie.

And still, being the good brother he was, he had accepted it and came to the conclusion that this was something Jongin had to tackle and mend at his own.  
“I still wonder what happened between the two of them…” Chanyeol hummed, his eyes trained on Jongin who was concentrating on noting down what he learned from the officials here.  
“They’ve been so close. And then, poof. But Sehun won’t talk about it.”  
“Same, Yeollie, same. But Jongin can keep a secret.”

So yet another mystery that they could not solve at the time being.

“You should consider getting this to King Minseok, you know?”  
At that did the brunet blink.  
To the king?  
“Why? I think he is too busy…” he argued weakly but his friend only shook his head.  
“Tekiel has some ties to the royal court, right? And he is fond of your House. Well, all of you three boys, not your father.”, Chanyeol said and they both snickered at that.  
Yeah, that was true. King Minseok was actually really nice and down to earth despite his social ranking.  
“Perhaps. If these attacks continue, we won’t have much of a choice anyway.”  
“True that.” his friend finished and they both took a final look around, but decided that they had seen enough.  
“I’ll keep my ears and eyes open, okay? Can’t make any promises, but I will try.”  
Jongdae smiled at that, patting his friend’s shoulder – which wasn’t so easy considering his friend’s height.  
“I know, I know. Don’t worry. Tekiel won’t go down that easily… but it will probably make my father press on with the marriage…”  
Chanyeol chuckled at that.  
“Perhaps. So be careful, okay? I see you later.”  
Jongdae grumbled.  
He knew that there was nothing they could do about this whole marriage thing… as long as they didn’t find anything disastrous about Izenry.  
And with these attacks re-occurring…  
Jongdae barely had the time to focus on anything else. Besides…  
There was another matter now too.

“Fine, fine” he said and crossed his arms behind his head, turning away to feign nonchalance.  
“Just leave me here and go see your secret lover.”  
Kyungsoo that is.  
Chanyeol mostly dropped in unannounced with the heir of House Hastings…  
Less chance of being discovered.  
“Oh I will.” his tall friend teased and sent him a wink before he set of with a final salute.

It wasn’t like he wasn’t used to the other’s special abilities.  
At least the tall male wasn’t like Sehun here. As a Coinshot could he simply push himself of the ground as long as he had some base made out of metal to steady and direct him.  
And if there was nothing, he just dropped a coin before practically flying off. That was far more scary.  
Sometimes, he envied them.  
Kyungsoo had admitted that too – that sometimes they felt a little plain and out of place next to them. Having three Mistings around in your close circle?  
Yeah, that didn’t happen to everyone.  
Jongdae ruffled his hair as he got fed up with his own inner monologue. He pondered things too much – there needed to be more action and less thinking.  
The brunet left the perimeter of the crime scene then and hoped that the evidence they and the official law keepers had gathered would suffice.  
Only time would tell – now the employees of Tekiel need to clean the plaza up and get rid of everything that was broken beyond repair.  
If there was anything of value they would deliver it to one of their workshops where the foreman had been instructed to look after it.

“Wow! What in the Lord Mistborn’s name has happened here!?”

Jongdae whipped around immediately.  
He knew that voice. Even after the few encounters this was unmistakably Dusk.

And he hadn’t been wrong he realised, when he came face to face with an astonished, black-haired male. Dusk was blinking, taking in the view in front of him, with the destroyed carriages, chests and broken goods.  
It was quite the sight to take in - utter destruction had happened. At least there had been no human casualties…  
“Dusk?” he said, not really able to believe that the other was here.  
That seemed like a big coincidence seeing as he had just thought about the other a mere moment ago.  
“Huh? Dawn?”  
It seemed as if the other hadn’t even realised that he was here as well. That seemed typical though…  
If Jongdae had learned something about Dusk then that the other usually had his head in the clouds.  
“What are you doing here?” Jongdae pressed.  
Yes, he was curious. Had the news already spread?

“No, what are YOU doing here, Dawn?” Dusk asked, blinking at him. The question couldn’t have been so important though at he was suddenly enveloped in a bone-crushing hug.  
“I missed you!” the other said and Jongdae couldn’t help but hug back.  
“We just saw each other last night…” he muttered before slowly pulling away.  
“To be honest, I’m surprised you’re standing on your legs… That had been quite the number of shots…”  
Oh yes.  
Which was also why Jongdae had only risen under protest.

Still, they were both here now and Dusk had this smug grin on his face again.  
“Ah! That was nothing, I tell you my friend. It needs more than that to knock me out for long… that’s a promise. So next time if you are set on drinking me under the table, actual try, okay?”  
A wink was sent in his direction and Jongdae swallowed down a chuckle.  
Why was Dusk so likeable?

“Oh, sod off! You’ve been completely drunk… I had to shove you into the carriage!”  
Dusk nudged him at that.  
“Not true. But really. Any idea what happened here?”  
Jongdae could only nod at that and filled the other in, leaving out the name of the noble House who had been attacked. Namely, his own.

“Sheesh” Dusk muttered, “I heard of this… attacks like this keep happening. I bet there is something more to it.”

That was what Jongdae thought as well. At least he wasn’t alone in this.  
“It seems like it at least” Jongdae said and looked at Dusk who met his eyes easily. He looked… different like this. His dark eyes wandered over the other male’s form, over his vest with the light shirt beneath it, down his trousers to the shoes he was wearing.  
They looked good – good wares too. Not from one of the top tailors but close enough. His hair was styled too and not messy like yesterday.  
Yesterday… they had both been in casual clothing, just two young males without their names attached to them who got drunk together.  
Who had sung to their hearts content and who…may have also danced on the tables in said tavern.

Jongdae was sure that all the other guests had had the laugh of their lives that night – but luckily he had been drunk enough to be amused by it and not embarrassed.  
“My head hurts” he finally muttered “I think there’s still something left from last night… I still wonder how you even managed to get up”  
Dusk just shrugged his shoulders at that.  
“Family business. Can’t stay in bed the whole day… you know how parents are.”  
Yeah… especially in their caste – that was true. Family issues needed to be dealt with lest they lost reputation. Jongdae knew what the other meant here… if it weren’t for his father he would probably still laze around in bed as well.  
Perhaps still asleep too.  
They had been out until shortly before sunrise – both of them staggering down the streets until they had to part. Jongin had been there, letting him in and the brunet had never been more grateful for his brother.  
He had gotten a few weird stares but…  
Yeah.  
He had been out with a friend. Nothing special there actually, right?  
“I know.”  
He patted the other on his shoulder.  
“Which is why I have to leave now anyway.” He sent the other an apologetic smile. He would love to chat more but that wasn’t possible as their father expected them both back.  
Though he actually didn’t know that he had taken Jongin, but he wouldn’t leave his younger brother out here of course.  
Dusk made a face at that and he almost felt sorry for the other – but he definitely felt sorry for himself. He absolutely didn’t want to get back home and tell his father what had happened here and how much loss they had suffered…  
Jongin probably had the details about that from the law keepers… but even a blind person could see that it was quite a lot.  
“You’re gonna leave me here?” Dusk whined and pouted at him – that cute pout he had gotten to know already.  
The other was… yeah…different than what one might expect from a young lord of a noble House. Which House he didn’t know – but it was really the least of his concerns.  Dusk pouted a lot and he was whiny when he didn’t get what he wanted. Just as right now.  
And Jongdae couldn’t help but think that this was adorable.

He was allowed to think that, right?  
“Sorry” he chuckled and nudged the black-haired male gently.  
“We’re still meeting up next Friday though? I get to pick a place this time.” As they had no other means of contact they had to plan far ahead. There were messengers of course but if you didn’t know where to send that person… then they also couldn’t deliver the messages. Easy as that. So when they met they also needed to keep in mind to schedule a next meeting.

Dusk grumbled and shrugged his shoulders  
“I heard something about some event coming up before that. Let’s hope it’s not on said Friday” he said, his lips sticking out in a pout again.  
“Well, we are already used to flower punch, so I guess we will survive yet another gathering of highly sophisticated nobles, won’t we, Lord Dusk?” he joked and made a formal bow in front of the other male, his leg crossing over the other one in the polite gesture.  
Dusk snickered at that and nodded.  
“I guess you are right, Lord Dawn. Let’s make the best out if it, shall we? I will be there. Find me as far away from the punch bowl as possible.”

They both chuckled at that and eventually bid their good-byes to each other.  
Jongdae smiled.  
Well… that had been nice. His mood had gotten better by a tenfold because of seeing the other. Dusk was always funny even if they saw each other just for a short moment.

“I should introduce him…” he trailed off. Thinking of Kyungsoo, Chanyeol and Sehun. And Jongin too, but his younger brother had at least seen Dusk from afar now.  
At least now he had a witness who could verify that he was not a figment of his imagination.

That was a start.

“Who was that?”  
Jongdae turned, coming face to face with said witness. Jongin, with his notebook in hand, pencil safely tugged away in his breast pocket, looked at him, his eyebrows drawn up.  
“That? Ah, the friend from yesterday night.” He started to explain but it didn’t seem to satisfy his brother at all.  
“The one you got drunk with? To the point that I couldn’t understand a single word anymore that left your mouth?”  
Jongdae chuckled at that, his cheeks colouring pink.  
“Yep… that one. Though I can guarantee you that he had it worse! Dusk didn’t even remember his name anymore!”  
That was true.  
Though it was kind of easy to forget in their cases as Dusk and Dawn were just two codenames they had come up with to conceal their real identities.  
Luckily that had worked – as House Tekiel was actually one of the better-known Houses. What if Dusk did indeed know who he was?  
And what House he belonged to?  
Jongdae shook his head, banishing the thought as quickly as it had come. Even if it were so, the other was clearly trying to make an effort to keep up their game of pretence. Anything else didn’t matter.

“You like him.” Jongin deadpanned and Jongdae grinned brightly, completely oblivious of the statement’s ambiguity.  
“I do.” he admitted, “He is a good friend. I haven’t known him for long, but he is really funny and nice.”  
“Nice.” his brother repeated, tilting his head. His brown hair fell into his eye-sight, and the older watched as his brother tried to blow it out of the way.  
“Yes. Nice. What’s so funny about it?”  
Why had Jongin started grinning now?  
Jongdae was confused.

“You’re engaged, brother. Don’t forget that.” Jongin said, that grin still on his face, “That’s all I am saying. Father wouldn’t be pleased… I mean, he is never pleased, but Rusts, this would set him off.”  
“Harmony!” the elder exclaimed, his hands coming up to hide his face.  
“What are you thinking, Jongin!” he complained, fighting a blush that was starting to warm up his cheeks. This brother of his! Sometimes he really was as bad as Sehun!  
Jongdae took a deep breath, blamed his nervousness about the engagement for the way his heart skipped several beats and finally grumbled.  
“I don’t know where you got that idea from, but he is a friend. Nothing more, nothing less.”  
Jongin nodded then and shrugged his shoulders. The brunet wasn’t sure if his brother was convinced by that or simply agreed in favour of avoiding Jongdae making a scene now. He feared that it was the latter.

Yet, what he had said was the truth, right?  
Dusk was a great friend. And they had already set a date for their next meeting. Then soon he would introduce him to his other friends.

Still, he couldn’t stifle the feeling of possessiveness in his chest that told him he should keep Dusk’s friendship to himself.

Jongdae ignored it and joined Jongin in the carriage waiting nearby to return them to their home and to report back to his father.

 **A/N:**  
Thank you for reading everyone!  
Jongdae is really smitten with his friend Dusk, huh? But apparenlty things are going to happen~ Who is planning something against Tekiel?  
Or was that all a coincidence?  
We will find that out soon!  
  
Thanks for staying with me and this fic and a special shoutout to my beta who had a very hard time with this chapter. Thank you.  
I hope the next update won’t take as long!  
  
xoxo Voltage

 


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